A travel blogger offers a glimpse into the suffering on a hantavirus-stricken ship

Boston-based travel blogger Jake Rosmarin is among nearly 100 people aboard the im/v Hondius, an Atlantic Ocean cruise ship now struggling to contain an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus.

In a tearful video Rosmarin shot for TikTok, the outside world was asked to remember the passengers’ “uncertainty”. “What’s happening is real for us right now,” Rosmarin said. “We are not just a story, we are not just headlines, we are people, people with families, lives, and people waiting for us at home.”

Before leaving Argentina on a 35-day cruise, Rosmarin filmed a video tour of the ship – highlighting the dining hall, the bridge, the outer decks, and her cabin.

Ship condition

Three passengers of the Hondius, which departed on April 11 from Argentina to Cape Verde, died of hantavirus, which is usually acquired through exposure to feces, urine, or rat saliva. The disease is believed to have spread during a bird-watching trip, according to NBC News.

The World Health Organization is currently reporting five confirmed cases of the virus. This particular strain of hantavirus, known as the Andes strain, can spread from person to person.

After the first illnesses began to appear on board, 30 people aboard the Hondius disembarked on April 24 on the island of St. Helena, including the wife of the man who died of the virus. Her husband’s body was also taken out. Contact tracing was not done in St. Helena, according to reports.

The widow, who has not been named, then flew to Johannesburg and then tried to fly home to Amsterdam, but was removed from the plane before it left for Europe. This woman is dead.

A few people who came down from St. Helena is now in the United States, mainly in California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Virginia. Representatives of the World Health Organization said that the outbreak “is not the beginning of an epidemic or a new epidemic,” according to NBC News.

The Hondius is currently on its way to the Canary Islands and is expected to arrive in three or four days, but the president of the Spanish controlled islands is currently against the ship stopping there. No one aboard the ship has symptoms at this time, announced a statement from Hondius Oceanwide Expeditions.

WHO recommendations

On Wednesday, the WHO provided important facts about hantavirus:

• Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause severe disease in humans.

• Humans are often infected by contact with infected rodents or their urine, feces or saliva.

• Infection with hantaviruses can cause many illnesses, including severe illness and death.

• In the United States, hantaviruses can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a severe respiratory disease, with a mortality rate of 50 percent.

• Andes virus, found in South America, is the currently known hantavirus for which limited person-to-person transmission between contacts has been documented.

• In Europe and Asia, hantaviruses cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).

Hantavirus symptoms, diagnosis and treatment

Symptoms of hantavirus can appear anywhere from one to eight weeks after exposure, and usually include fatigue, fever, headache, muscle aches, stomach pain, nausea, or vomiting.

The WHO warns that early diagnosis of hantavirus infection is difficult because many of the early symptoms are similar to flu, pneumonia, and COVID. The Andes strain of hantavirus does not spread as easily as the flu or COVID, according to health experts cited by NBC News.

Hantavirus can cause two different diseases: pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which affects the lungs, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), which affects the kidneys. HPS is very dangerous, with a mortality rate of 38 percent, according to USA Todaywhile HFRS has a mortality rate of 1 to 15 percent.

There is no specific treatment or vaccine for hantavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Patients should receive supportive care, including rest, hydration, and symptomatic treatment,” the organization said on its website.

If you think you have been exposed

Wear a face mask and go to the nearest hospital or medical center immediately.