When the cruise ship Hondius left South America, everyone thought it was going to be this chill, once‑in‑a‑lifetime nature trip: penguins, glaciers, cool islands, the whole deal. Then one of the passengers, a man from the Netherlands, got really sick. At first, nobody thought much of as people get sick on cruises all the time. However, the man’s condition rapidly got worse, and there was nothing that could save him, leading him to only one outcome: death.
A few days later, his wife got sick too. She left the ship early with a group of passengers who flew home from St. Helena. But on her way back to Europe, she collapsed in the Johannesburg airport and later died. That’s when health officials realized this wasn’t just some random illness; it was Andes hantavirus, a super rare hantavirus and one of the only ones that can actually spread from person to person.
Suddenly, the whole world is on watch and paying attention.
The Hondius still has almost 150 people on board, and nobody knows who else might’ve been exposed. The ship is struggling to find a port that would let it dock, as no one wants to take on the burden of a potentially worldwide pandemic. The ship was stuck anchored off the coast of Praia, Cape Verde, while health officials debated what to do. The ship has now returned to its journey as it heads to the Canary Islands, with officials there still unsure if they are going to let the ship port. Passengers are trying to stay calm, but you can imagine how tense it feels; everyone is wearing masks, keeping distance, and the fate of their lives depends on a test result.
Investigators think the Dutch couple got infected before the cruise even started, during a bird‑watching trip at a landfill in Ushuaia, Argentina. There were likely infected rodents there, and the virus spreads when people breathe in particles from their droppings.
Now the ship is working on a plan to dock, and health teams around the world are tracking down the passengers who left early. It’s honestly kind of surreal, giving flashbacks to the COVID-19 pandemic just 6 years ago, but here we are reliving it as we speak.
