It is believed Hantavirus was brought onto MV Hondius by a Dutch couple who had gone birdwatching at a landfill site in Ushuaia, Argentina, before boarding the ship
A British doctor evacuated from the cruise ship marooned after a deadly Hantavirus outbreak struck is ‘stable’ but in a “serious condition”.
It is feared the virus, which has killed three passengers, was brought onto the ship by a Dutch couple who had gone on a bird watching trip. The bird loving couple were the first to report symptoms four days after the cruise began and both later died.
The 70-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife had been travelling in Argentina before their dream trip and had gone bird watching in the coastal city of Ushuaia, where the boat was docked.
Argentine officials investigating the origins of the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship told AP their Government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in the city before boarding. They said the couple visited a landfill during the bird-watching tour where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.
Previously authorities said that Ushuaia and the surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a case of the hantavirus which was more prevalent in rural areas inland.
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Some 19 British nationals were listed as passengers on the ship, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members.
Eight people on the ship are believed to have been exposed to the virus, three have died, and three are in a serious condition, another is showing no symptoms and one man tested positive for the virus after leaving the ship. In total three have been confirmed as having the virus after tests, including the 69-year-old British passenger who is still in intensive care in Johannesburg.
On Wednesday three people were medically evacuated from the ship, including the 56 year old British doctor who is said to be serious but ‘stable’ and a Dutch crew member, aged 41. They were both flown to a Netherlands medical facility. A German national, aged 65, had no symptoms but was also evacuated as they had been travelling with the man who died, will return to Germany.
Before disaster struck, passengers described their five week voyage from Argentina to Cape Verde as “unreal” filming rare dolphins and birds, then thrilled to finally set foot on the remotest inhabited island in the world, Tristan Da Cunha.
Ruhi Cenet, a filmmaker, shared a video on Instagram showing a senior crew member announcing the first death and criticised the vessel’s management for not locking them down sooner.
His film shows the Captain speaking to passengers in the ship’s lounge, using a microphone. He announces: ‘This is my sad duty to inform you that one of our passengers sadly passed away last night…it was due to natural causes I believe…I’m told by the doctor they are not infectious and the ship is safe when it comes to that.”
Ruhi then described how his journey went wrong and says in his video: “When one of the passengers died during a month-long journey on an expedition vessel, I honestly thought it was because of the rough ocean conditions.
“But it turns out the situation was much worse than we were told. I got off the ship on Day 24 but this vessel called MV Hondius continued towards its final destination for another 11 days.
“Just after one day I left the ship, the wife of the person who had died also passed away. And after a third person died it became clear that there was Hantavirus on board, a virus transmitted by rodents with no treatment available.
“It was only later understood that the first person who had died, died actually because of this virus. Now the ship’s only doctor is also fighting for his life.”
He added: “All the passengers are stuck in an unknown quarantine situation…”
“I wish the vessel’s management had taken this problem more seriously from the very first death; they should have thought that it might be a contagious disease. People who may have been carrying the virus should have been quarantined. But everyone was still together, meals were still eaten together and group activities continued.”
He said blood tests should have been taken before such a long journey started.
But Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise operators, said they were aware of the video circulating on social media and wanted to point out the announcement to guests was made on April 12th, the day after a Dutch national died.
They said; “This onboard announcement was made on 12 April 2026. On this date, the cause of death of this individual was unknown. No other symptomatic individuals were present on board.
“At the time of the announcement, no evidence of a virus or contagion was present on the vessel. The case was believed to be isolated following medical review.
“Proper procedure was followed in informing all guests and crew aboard m/v Hondius. Health and safety and maritime standards regarding the proper management and reporting of a death while at sea were followed.”
Jake Rosmarin, who earlier posted a tearful video about being stranded on the ship, later posted a picture of himself smiling adding: “Spirits are still high…we are being well fed and cared for.”
Others had posted online about their frustration a dead body and sick crew members were not being allowed off the ship which was due to disembark on Monday in Cape Verde.
It took at least three days for the doctor to be medically evacuated and taken to a specialist aircraft which had been sent from the Netherlands to collect him.
He was evacuated alongside another Dutch crew member who was sick and a German passenger, who was connected to the man who died on May 2nd.
The first passenger to die, a Dutch man aged 70, passed away on April 11th as the ship arrived in St Helena. His wife, aged 69, died after being flown to South Africa. It is believed she was taken off a connecting flight to the Netherlands because of her medical condition.
South African authorities are now tracing 90 people on her flight. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said: “Preliminary tests show that it is indeed the Andes strain. And it turns out to be the only one of the 38 known strains that can be transmitted from person to person. But as we said, and we want to reiterate, this type of transmission is very rare and only occurs due to very close contact between people .”
Those infected suffered symptoms including fever and gastrointestinal illness to pneumonia, respiratory failure, and shock.
Swiss authorities have confirmed that a case of Hantavirus had been identified in a passenger who’d left the cruise ship and had responded to an alert and presented himself to a hospital in Zurich.
WHO director Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.”
Oceanwide Expeditions revealed two infectious disease physicians from the Netherlands, were joining the ship before it was due to leave for a three day journey from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands.
But it was up in the air if they would be allowed to dock there.
Spain’s health ministry said it would receive the ship in Tenerife after a request from the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
But the Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, said he worried about the risk to the population and demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The plan is that once in Tenerife, all non-Spanish passengers will be repatriated to their countries while the Spanish passengers will be taken to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine.
The ship is expected at Granadilla where there will be a system for assessing the passengers and progressing their repatriation back to countries of origin, they said.
Oceanwide Expeditions said: “We can confirm that the three individuals previously indicated as awaiting medical transfer have been successfully disembarked from m/v Hondius…Two of the individuals remain in a serious condition. The third, while currently asymptomatic, was closely associated with the individual who passed away on board on 2 May 2026. The two symptomatic individuals have not tested positive for hantavirus at this time.”
Passengers on the ship are being urged to stay in their cabins and have been keeping themselves busy by reading, watching movies and having hot drinks.
The World Health Organisation’s top epidemic expert Maria Van Kerkhove said. “This is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease. Most people will never be exposed to this.”
On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Foreign Office is working urgently to support the UKHSA’s (UK Health Security Agency’s) work overseas and to make sure British nationals on the MV Hondius can all get safely home with proper protection for public health.
“Foreign Office consular staff are in direct contact with British nationals onboard the ship and stand ready to provide further assistance to any British national in need of support overseas 24/7 – our crisis response centre has been operating for the last few days to provide support.
“Ministers are in close touch with our Dutch and Spanish counterparts and we have been working with other countries to facilitate the medical evacuations, to support our overseas territories and to get British nationals home safely as quickly as possible.”
