Breakdowns, binoculars and football: Life inside the hantavirus ship revealed

With a deadly virus spreading among passengers and staff and the globe fearing the floating cruise ship heading their way – those stuck onboard the MV Hondius tried to keep cool heads.

Pictures from onboard the MV Hondius show passengers calmly watching the Champions League game between Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich.

Living under strict Covid-style health measures, the passengers, mostly passionate wildlife enthusiasts, had to gang together.

‘Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution,’ passenger Qasem Elhato, 31 said.

To keep morale high, he said: ‘We kept ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks and that kind of thing.’

Passengers were able to follow their own story in the world’s media as countries squabbled over where the ship should dock and what to do with the 150 people stranded onboard.

They reported spirits were raised when a drop of fresh fruit and vegetables made it onboard.

Helene Goessaert, another passenger, told Belgian broadcaster VRT that everyone on board was ‘in the same boat, literally.’

‘You don’t embark on a trip with the idea that one of your fellow passengers won’t make it,’ she said.

‘We’re not just a story. We’re not just headlines, we’re people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home,’ said travel vlogger Jake Rosmari through tears.

Unlike Rosmarin’s emotional recount, another passenger on the ship, Kasem Hato, said ‘the whole situation has been blown out of proportion’.

He said this was ‘partly because of one person panicking on the ship whose video has been circulating [in] the media,’ an apparent reference to Rosmarin’s video.

‘While his reaction is valid, it doesn’t represent the situation on board, everyone else (148 out of 149) has been calm, the situation is under control and we just wish those who are sick a speedy recovery’, Hato, also a travel influencer, said.

A French woman whose condition rapidly declined had reported hantavirus symptoms to doctors onboard but was told it was ‘probably just anxiety’.

Spanish health minister Javier Padilla Bernáldez said the woman had been suffering flu-like symptoms but they appeared to be getting better and she did not have a fever. She is now ‘very critical’.

‘They were not thinking that these symptoms were compatible with hantavirus. Why? Because what she was telling [them] was [that she had] an episode of coughing some days ago that had disappeared, and what she was having at that moment was kind of like stress or anxiety or nervousness. So it was not catalogued [as hantavirus],’ Padilla said.

The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued a video message praising passengers and crew for their courage and perseverance, and he called for respect for their privacy.

‘I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike,’ he said.

It came after footage emerged of the captain initially announcing the first death whilst insisting it was not infectious.

Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks began escorting the travellers from ship to shore in Tenerife in the Canary Islands on Sunday.

The head of the World Health Organisation spoke about the mental challenges faced by passengers on board MV Hondius.

Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus told Sky that the decision not to make passengers isolate on the ship was the ‘best option’.

‘Some people said they could have stayed on the ship and isolated, but I think it’s cruel; I don’t think it should be considered as an option,’ he said.

‘As you can imagine, there were even mental breakdowns for some passengers. It’s very difficult to stay on a small container for a few weeks; you can imagine how it affected them mentally.’

After a deep clean, you will be able to book your place back on the Hondius in a £6,000 cabin for an Iceland tour at the end of the month.

How did hantavirus get on board?

Leo Schilperoord, 70, a bird expert who hopped back on the cruise after visiting a landfill in Argentina to birdwatch.

He was the first person to die, followed by his wife Miriam, a few days later, after she flew from St Helena to Johannesburg in South Africa.

The Dutch couple who presented the first two cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship, the WHO said. They visited sites where the species of rat known to carry Andes virus was present.

A German woman had ‘fever and general malaise’ on April 28 before testing positive and dying of hantavirus aboard the ship on May 2.

Several people who were on the ship have tested positive or fallen ill, including:

• One of 17 Americans who had been returned to the US on Sunday ‘tested mildly’ positive while another had ‘mild symptoms’, the US Department of Health said.
• The ship’s doctor and a guide are ‘stable in isolation’ after being flown to the Netherlands.
• A man who disembarked at St Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, tested positive and remains at a Swiss hospital.
• A British man on the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic is suspected of having been infected.

The MV Hondius is expected to reach its final destination in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Sunday evening, tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Monday.

A total of 27 people remain on board – 25 crew members and 2 medical professionals.

The nationalities of those remaining on board are as follows:

• Philippines – 17
• Netherlands – 4 (2 of whom are medical professionals)
• Ukraine – 4
• Russia – 1
• Poland – 1

The body of the deceased German passenger who died on May 2 remains on board and will be repatriated upon arrival to the Netherlands, the tour company said.

What is hantavirus and how is it spread?

Pharmacist Thorrun Govind tells Metro: ‘Hantavirus is a group of viruses, not one specific virus, which is carried by rats and mice and can cause serious disease in humans.’

Catching hantavirus can lead to two main illnesses, one of which affects the lungs (Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome or HPS) and the other which affects the kidneys (Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or HFRS).

The virus is contracted through exposure to rodent urine and droppings.

‘We’re really talking about breathing contaminated air because the virus becomes airborne when rodent urine or droppings dry out,’ Dr Govind explains.

‘You’ll need to be in the contaminated area for a prolonged amount of time, but you can get it from touching contaminated surfaces or from a bite or scratch – but that tends to be more rare.’

The incubation period for this illness is generally two to four weeks, but can range from as little as two days to as long as eight weeks.

‘It’s very rare for it to spread from person to person – this is not like Covid or flu,’ the pharmacist adds.

What is hantavirus?

Hantaviruses are a family of rodent-bourne viruses, with each strain tied to a specific host species.

It’s spread when people come into contact with infected droppings, saliva, urine or nesting materials, but is extremely rare, and rarely passed from person to person.

If caught, hantavirus can lead to two main illnesses, one of which affects the lungs (Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome or HPS) and the other which affects the kidneys (Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or HFRS).

The incubation period for this illness is generally two to four weeks, according to the government, but can range from as little as two days to as long as eight weeks.

What are the symptoms?

Early symptoms of hantavirus are similar to the flu, and include headaches, dizziness, chills as well as abdominal problems like diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea.

If it progresses into Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, patients can experience headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

If you develop Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, initial symptoms will include intense headaches, back and abdominal pain, fever or chills, nausea, and blurred vision.

If the disease progresses, later symptoms include low blood pressure, acute shock (lack of blood flow), internal bleeding, and acute kidney failure, according to the CDC.

Hantavirus can be fatal, so it’s important to keep an eye on symptoms if you believe you’ve been exposed. There is currently no cure for the disease.

Is hantavirus in the UK?

In short, yes. But human-to-human transmission is incredibly rare, and medical experts have said the risk to the general public is low.

‘This is not something I would be worried about in the UK,’ Dr Govind explains.

‘It’s important people are aware of it, but we’re not going to be seeing a pandemic.’