Three people have died following an outbreak of the deadly rodent-borne pathogen aboard the Atlantic cruise ship MV Hondius
The captain assured passengers aboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius that the first death on board was due to “natural causes” and that the vessel was safe, according to newly released video footage.
The footage, captured on April 12 – before the hantavirus outbreak was confirmed – shows Captain Jan Dobrogowski informing passengers that one man aboard the ship had died.
“Tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes, we believe,” Dobrogowski said, adding that “whatever health issues he was struggling with, I’m told by the doctor, were not infectious, so the ship is safe when it comes to that.”
The Dutch‑flagged Atlantic cruise ship, carrying some 150 people from 23 countries, departed from Argentina toward Cape Verde on April 1. The first victim, a 70‑year‑old Dutch man, began showing signs of illness on April 6 and passed away on April 11. His 69‑year‑old wife accompanied his body to South Africa, where she later collapsed and died in a Johannesburg hospital on April 26. On May 2, a third passenger – a German woman – also died from the disease and her body is still on board the vessel.
As of May 7, a total of eight confirmed or suspected cases have been linked to the MV Hondius, with patients evacuated to the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain. Health authorities are now scrambling to track down about 29 passengers who disembarked from the ship at earlier stops.
Investigators believe that the elderly Dutch couple likely contracted the rare virus during a bird-watching excursion at a landfill site in Ushuaia, Argentina, before boarding.
The virus has been identified as the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare pathogen typically spread through contact with infected rodent droppings, urine or saliva. Unlike most hantaviruses, the Andes strain is known to be capable of limited human‑to‑human transmission through close contact with an infected person.
Initially denied docking in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, the MV Hondius has now been permitted to proceed to Tenerife. Once there, unaffected passengers will be transported home, while Spanish nationals will be quarantined.
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