Passenger quarantined on ship struggling with hantavirus outbreak shares tearful message
A passenger quarantined aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius due to an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus said in a moving social media message Monday that he just wants to “feel safe… and to get home.”
Jake Rosemarin of Boston is one of 147 individuals on board. According to the World Health Organization , that includes 88 passengers and 59 crew members. They represent 23 nationalities, including four Canadians.
Rosemarin’s trying tale comes in the wake of an outbreak of the severe respiratory illness reported on May 2, said the WHO. The affected onboard cluster includes two laboratory-confirmed cases of hantavirus and five suspected cases. A Dutch couple and a German national have died.
Two seriously ill crew members on the ship will be evacuated via Cape Verde to the Netherlands, allowing the vessel to sail on to Spain’s Canary Islands, the operator said Tuesday. The ship has been anchored off Cape Verde, West Africa since Sunday.
Spain’s health ministry said the ship was due to arrive in the Canaries in “three to four days” but did not specify the port, AFP reported . Upon arrival, the crew and passengers “will be duly examined, cared for, and transferred to their respective countries,” the ministry said. The World Health Organization said the Canary Islands are “the closest place with the necessary (medical) capabilities.”
Global Affairs Canada told National Post in an email Tuesday that the department “is aware” of the outbreak on the ship.
Consular officers have been in contact with the local authorities, said Thida Ith, Global Affairs media relations officer. At this point, she added, “there are no reports of any Canadians being directly affected” by the outbreak.
In a social media post on Monday , the clearly distressed Rosemarin said in a tearful, shaky voice: “What’s happening is very real for all of us here. We’re not just a story. We’re not just headlines. We’re people. People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and that’s the hardest part. All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity and to get home.
“So, if you’re seeing coverage about this, just remember that there are real people behind it. And that this isn’t something happening somewhere far away. It’s happening to us, right now.”
He concluded his message by saying he would share more when he can. In the meantime, he asked for “kindness and understanding.”
The WHO describes the human hantavirus infection as “primarily acquired through contact with the urine, feaces, or saliva of infected rodents. It is a rare but severe disease that can be deadly.”
The disease got attention recently, NPR reported , when it claimed the life of Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman.
The WHO ranks the global risk connected with hantavirus as low. Fatality rates from what is known as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, an acute disease caused by the hantavirus, is estimated to be between one and 15 per cent.
However, the onboard risk to those already exposed is enough to require monitoring, isolation, and medical evacuation. It means uncertainty about when passengers will be able to leave, when the ship will be moved and whether evacuation may occur.
According to the WHO, the vessel departed Argentina on April 1 and made multiple stops across the South Atlantic in “remote and ecologically diverse regions, including mainland Antarctica, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena, and Ascension Island.”
The extent of contact with local wildlife during the voyage, or prior to boarding in Argentina, “remains undetermined,” said the WHO.
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