World3 min(s) read
Published 09:40 11 May 2026 GMT
A US national has tested positive for hantavirus after returning home from a cruise ship linked to the deadly virus, just days after the first victim was identified.
The US health department flew two American nationals home in "biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution" on a repatriation flight. Both passengers were reported to have shown mild symptoms.
The first person to die as a result of the deadly virus outbreak on board a cruise ship has been identified as a Dutch birdwatcher.
On April 11, Ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, 70, died as a result of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius, just weeks after visiting a landfill site in Argentina.
His body remained on board the ship until it was able to dock in St Helena on April 24.
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Leo’s wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, also died just two weeks later after collapsing at Johannesburg airport attempting to board a plane to the Netherlands from South Africa on April 26.
The couple, from the small Netherlands village Haulerwijk, had been on a five-month trip around South America.
Tributes in their village magazine said, “We will miss you and the stories.”
Another tribute in the April issue of the Haulerwijk magazine read, “like birds in flight.”
Argentinian authorities believe that the Dutch couple contracted the Andes strain of the deadly virus while visiting a landfill site four miles outside the city of Ushuaia, dubbed by locals as “the end of the world”.
The huge garbage mountain is often visited by tourists interested in bird watching as it is home to rare species of Patagonian birds, including the White-bellied Seedsnipe
As the virus is largely transmitted via contaminated rodent droppings, blood, or saliva, the pair was likely exposed to infected rodents during their trip.
Four days later, on April 1, the couple embarked on the MV Hondius from Ushuaia, along with 112 others.
On April 6, Leo reported having a fever, headache, stomach pain, and diarrhea. He died on the ship five days later.
However, despite authorities investigating the landfill site, an official claims the couple could also have caught the virus in northern Patagonia.
Around 101 cases of the disease, including 32 deaths, have been confirmed over the last several months in Northern Patagonia.
The World Health Organisation said on Sunday, May 10, that the number of hantavirus cases linked to the outbreak on MV Hondius has risen to eight, with three people who have died already.
Shockingly, even after Leo’s death, a video captured by a Turkish travel blogger showed the ship’s captain assuring passengers the illness was “not infectious”.
The captain says the outbreak’s patient zero was believed to have died of “natural causes”.
