Hantavirus kills 3 on cruise ship MV Hondius: Dutch couple and German victim named as rare Andes strain spreads on Atlantic voyage

Three people boarded a luxury expedition cruise ship in Argentina expecting the trip of a lifetime. None of them made it home.

 

The MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged cruise ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, pulled into the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife this morning with a health crisis unfolding behind its walls. On board were 150 passengers and crew from 23 countries. Three of them were dead before the ship ever reached shore.

 

Leo Schilperoord was 70 years old. His wife Mirjam was 69. They were from Haulerwijk, a small town in the Netherlands. They loved birdwatching. That love is what killed them.

 

The couple went on a birdwatching tour at a landfill near Ushuaia, Argentina before boarding the ship. Somewhere in that trash, they picked up the Andes virus, a rare and deadly strain of hantavirus that attacks the lungs.

 

Leo died first, on April 11, surrounded by strangers on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic. Mirjam got off with his body at Saint Helena on April 24. Then she got sick too. She died in a hospital in Johannesburg on April 26.

 

A German national, whose family has asked for privacy, died on board on May 2.

 

Eight people total have been infected. Six cases are lab-confirmed. The World Health Organization says the global risk is low. But for the families of those three people, risk is not a statistic.

 

What makes this story different from a normal outbreak is the virus itself. The Andes strain is the only hantavirus in the world known to pass from person to person. Not easily. Not like Covid. But through close, prolonged contact. On a ship with 150 people in tight quarters, that distinction matters.

 

The ship had been sailing blind for weeks. Denied entry at Cape Verde. Diverted to Tenerife. Now passengers are being taken off in small boats, loaded into sealed vehicles, and flown home.

 

CDC teams are on the ground in Tenerife. American passengers have been flown to a quarantine center in Omaha. The UK Health Security Agency is tracking down 30 British passengers who got off at Saint Helena. Canadian and Australian health authorities are watching for symptoms among their citizens.

 

Nobody knows yet if the virus spread further among passengers or crew. Tests are still coming in. But for now, the ship is empty, the dead are gone, and the families left behind are planning funerals instead of homecomings.