Eerie video shows passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship being told about the first hantavirus death — with the captain unknowingly telling them the “ship is safe” before realizing the ordeal they would face.
“This is my sad duty to inform you that one of our passengers suddenly passed away last night,” the captain, Jan Dobrogowski, said in the video taken April 12, a day after a 70-year-old Dutch man died, but before knowing it was from the spreading, deadly virus.
“Tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes, we believe. And also whatever health issues he was struggling with, I’m told by the doctor, were not infectious, so the ship is safe when it comes to that.”
The captain told passengers that “very sad” deaths happen at sea, again trying to reassure them that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
“This gentleman unfortunately succumbed to natural causes and like I say we’ll do what we can in order to continue in a safe and dignified way,” he said.
Another ship official then told passengers the man was under “intensive care” before his death.
The Dutch traveler — who has yet to be identified — started feeling ill with a fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea on April 6, more than two weeks after the cruise left Argentina on its 35-day expedition.
He then developed acute respiratory distress before dying on April 11.
Argentine officials told the Associated Press they believe the man and his 69-year-old wife contracted the virus while bird-watching in Ushuaia.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings, but symptoms can lie dormant for up to eight weeks, according to health officials.
The man’s body was taken off the ship at St. Helena and his wife flew to South Africa, where she collapsed at Johannesburg airport on April 25 before she died the next day. A German passenger died at sea on Saturday.
At least six people are in different hospitals with the virus.
Three people, including ex-British cop Martin Anstee, were evacuated from the vessel Wednesday. Ansteee was flown to Amsterdam for treatment.
A Dutch national, 41, and German national, 65, were also removed from the ship. It wasn’t immediately clear what condition they were in — but authorities said earlier that two of the three patients believed to be infected were seriously ill.
Three others are receiving treatment in Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa.
The MV Hondius is currently en route to Tenerife, where it’s expected to dock in around three days.
The ship’s docking location sparked a political firestorm in Spain – with the Canary Islands’ president, Fernando Clavijo, clashing with Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Clavijo blocked the ship from docking, but is being overruled by the Madrid government.
Anxious residents on the Canary Islands are fearing the outbreak could overwhelm hospitals similarly to the COVID-19 pandemic.
World Health Organization officials have stressed the risk is low, but countries — including the US — are monitoring those who have left the ship and returned home.
With Post wires.
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