Spain tests suspected hantavirus case in Alicante

MADRID, ​May 8 (Reuters) - A 32-year-old woman in the southeastern Spanish province of ​Alicante ‌has symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection and is being ⁠tested, Spanish health officials said on Friday.

The ⁠woman was a passenger ​on the same flight as a patient who died in Johannesburg after travelling on the MV Hondius cruise ship and ​contracting ‌the virus, Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters.

Authorities have identified the Andes strain of hantavirus on the ship, a version that can spread ​from human to human in rare cases, typically only after ‌close contact.

The woman has "mild respiratory symptoms" and is being transferred to a hospital in ‌the city of Alicante where she will be tested for the virus, with results expected 24 to 48 hours later, ​according to a statement on the regional health department's website.

Padilla said the ‌woman, a resident of Alicante in the Valencia region, was sitting two rows behind the cruise ship passenger, but ⁠the contact ⁠between them "was brief" since the passenger had ‌only been "on board for a short time" during the flight.

Padilla added that ​Valencia's ​regional health authorities were tracing the people ‌the woman has been in contact with over the past few days. (Reporting by David Latona, Joan Faus; Editing by Aislinn Laing, Victoria Waldersee and Andrew Heavens)