The MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city, on 1 April under grey skies that briefly cleared to reveal snow-capped mountains and autumnal forests. Eighty-eight passengers and 61 crew of 23 nationalities boarded the polar-class vessel for a 35-day “Atlantic expedition” to Cape Verde, with early sightings of humpback whales, dolphins, black-browed albatrosses and South American sea lions. Boston travel blogger Jake Rosmarin told followers the trip would be “something I’ll carry with me forever” and posted “Off to an incredible start” on Instagram.
A month later, three passengers were dead from hantavirus - a disease with a high mortality rate and no cure. The Hondius, which had stopped at South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha and St Helena, reached Cape Verde only to be refused permission for passengers to disembark. On Monday, a tearful Rosmarin posted a video shared worldwide, saying: “We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines, we are people - people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.” Six years after Covid-19 forced cruise ships to wander the seas seeking a dock, history was repeating itself with a different, lesser-known virus.
Unlike Covid-19, this hantavirus is not novel; it has long been carried by rodents in parts of Africa, Asia and South America. The WHO stresses human-to-human transmission is very rare, so the public health risk is low. But this is the first recorded onboard hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, and the disease kills up to half of those infected. The first victim was a 70-year-old Dutchman who developed respiratory symptoms on 6 April and died five days later. His 69-year-old wife disembarked in St Helena, but she too became ill and died. A British man was evacuated to South Africa, and an 80-year-old German woman died onboard. South African specialists identified the pathogen as hantavirus.
University of Limerick public health assistant professor Vikram Niranjan noted that cruises combine close contact, shared dining, enclosed spaces, and shared water and air systems - ideal conditions for disease spread. But ships also offer controlled environments for case-finding, contact-tracing, and isolation. That's cold comfort if you're stuck onboard while port authorities refuse docking. Cape Verde's health ministry said it was protecting its population; the Canary Islands initially objected, then agreed to let the ship anchor off Tenerife until all passengers disembark. The Hondius is due at Granadilla on Sunday.
Raphael Giacardi of World of Cruising and Cruise Trade News called the situation “extraordinary” and noted that most people only learned the name hantavirus a few days ago. Cruise operators have tightened outbreak protocols since Covid, he added, because lax sanitation invites negative media coverage. Not everyone is panicking: Jordanian travel influencer Kasem Hato (Ibn Hattuta) said the media overblew things, noting “this is not a new virus”.
Serious concerns remain. Three people were medically evacuated on Wednesday, including British photographer and expedition guide Martin Anstee, airlifted to a Netherlands hospital for isolation treatment. A KLM air steward who came into contact with the deceased 69-year-old woman also showed symptoms. The British man evacuated to South Africa on 27 April remains in intensive care but is “doing better”, said WHO's Dr Maria Van Kerkhove. Health authorities are tracing at least 29 passengers of 12 nationalities who disembarked in St Helena; a third British national was diagnosed with suspected hantavirus in Tristan da Cunha on Friday. UK Health Security Agency chief scientific officer Robin May suggested the 23 Britons onboard - 19 passengers and four crew - may be asked to self-isolate for 45 days on return.
The WHO continues to stress this is not the start of an epidemic or pandemic. “This is not Covid,” Van Kerkhove told reporters. Morale onboard has “improved significantly since the ship started moving again,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. But passengers shouldn't expect a warm welcome in the Canaries: Spain's head of civil protection said evacuees “will not leave the boat until the plane is there to take them to their countries,” then be transported in isolated vehicles to a completely isolated airport area.