Okay, I was kind of joking that the 2013 poop cruise was paradise compared to this ship that’s loaded with hantavirus. It’s now causing pandemic fears on social media because cases are popping up worldwide, all linked to a cruise where passengers were exposed to the virus last month.
The first case was reported on April 6, when a Dutch man fell ill with symptoms of the virus. He died on April 11, and his body was removed from the ship at St. Helena, along with the rest of the passengers. The man’s wife later took a flight to South Africa, where she tried to find a way back home to Amsterdam before being removed from the flight due to illness, and she later died. This is a nightmare scenario: the entire ship has been exposed, and everyone has disembarked. In fairness, some of these people left before the pathogen was identified. By the way, the virus can reportedly remain dormant for up to eight weeks (via NY Post):
At least 23 passengers from the hantavirus-infected cruise ship MV Hondius have already left the boat and returned home, including to the US, according to a shocking new report — and one of them has already gotten sick.
The travelers did not realize that they had been exposed to the deadly virus — which has a mortality rate of up to 40% — when they left the expedition vessel during its stop at Saint Helena, a tiny island in the South Atlantic, on April 23, according to a passenger who is still aboard the ship.
“There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,” the passenger told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
[…]
One of those passengers, a Swiss man who had returned home with his wife, tested positive for hantavirus on Wednesday, authorities said.
The man was initially taken to a Zurich hospital and tested negative for the virus – which can lie dormant for up to eight weeks.
He was apparently just one of many expedition passengers who decided to hit the road during the Dutch vessel’s two-day stop in the British territory last month.
Yes, some of those exposed live in the United States. The first confirmed case of infection was just reported in Israel.
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Nearly 40 cruise passengers exposed to a deadly virus may have already scattered across the globe — as authorities scramble to track them down.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 7, 2026
Dozens left the MV Hondius ship without contact tracing after a hantavirus outbreak that’s already killed at least three people.
The… pic.twitter.com/gXEKtgNyDY
Footage captured aboard the MV Hondius shows the ship's captain informing travelers that a passenger on the cruise had passed away. pic.twitter.com/EW5gcdbRrt
— New York Post (@nypost) May 6, 2026
"things turned strange the morning of April 12, when the ship's captain announced into a microphone that a passenger had died...'I am told by the doctor that we are not infectious,' the captain says in the footage -- little realizing the ship's British doctor would himself be in…
— Steve Lookner (@lookner) May 7, 2026
BREAKING: A flight attendant from Haarlem has been hospitalized due to a possible hantavirus infection, according to Dutch broadcaster RTL. She came into contact in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the 69-year-old Dutch woman who died from the virus a day later
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) May 7, 2026
#BREAKING: Israel just confirmed its first case of hantavirus.
— Insider (World News) (@InsiderWN) May 7, 2026
JUST IN: People in at least three U.S. states are reportedly being monitored for possible hantavirus exposure.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) May 7, 2026
BREAKING: Switzerland reports case of hantavirus in man who recently traveled on Hondius cruise ship pic.twitter.com/T9lrYzp7DK
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) May 6, 2026
French citizen in isolation and being tested for hantavirus after developing "mild symptoms," health ministry says.
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) May 7, 2026
The patient was not on the cruise ship but shared a flight with the woman who died of hantavirus in Johannesburg. pic.twitter.com/VphfW8Acf6
BREAKING: Two Texas residents were among the passengers aboard the MV Hondius, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Department. Officials said the pair left the ship and returned to the United States before the deadly hantavirus outbreak was identified.
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 7, 2026
The… pic.twitter.com/Q8SyuDQFqA
The Associated Press provided a detailed timeline of this incident. The ship started its Atlantic trip from Argentina, but things fell apart when the ship arrived at St. Helena:
Oceanwide Expeditions, the Dutch company that operates the MV Hondius, offers “expedition cruises” that involve trips to the Antarctic and several islands in the South Atlantic to see some of the remotest places on Earth.
[…]
On April 6, the 70-year-old Dutch man fell ill with fever, headache and diarrhea, WHO said.
He died on board on April 11, after developing respiratory distress. The ship was between the British island territories of South Georgia and St. Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic, according to data from the ship tracking website MarineTraffic. The cause of death could not be determined, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.
The ship sailed on for nearly two weeks, stopping near the island of Tristan da Cunha before reaching St. Helena, where the Dutch man’s body was removed on April 24. His 69-year-old wife disembarked.
The woman, who already had symptoms, became sicker during an April 25 flight to South Africa and collapsed at an airport there. She died at a hospital on April 26, WHO said.
The patient in Switzerland also disembarked in St. Helena, according to Swiss authorities, though his movements after that are not clear.
Another passenger, a British man, became sick on the ship after it left St. Helena and sailed to tiny Ascension Island, some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north. He had a high fever, shortness of breath and signs of pneumonia, according to WHO, and was evacuated from Ascension Island to South Africa on April 27. He is in intensive care in South Africa.
The third fatality, a German woman, died on the ship on Saturday, again after it had set sail for a new destination — this time Cape Verde. She died four days after falling ill and also had signs of pneumonia, WHO said, which can be caused by hantavirus. Her body is still on the ship.
Health officials in South Africa tested the British man in intensive care for hantavirus after tests for other ailments were negative. They received a positive result for hantavirus on Saturday, 21 days after the first passenger died.
On Sunday, WHO announced it was investigating a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which had by that time reached Cape Verde waters.
The ship is now heading to the Canary Islands after Spain granted them entry.
Passengers claimed they were not well informed about the developing situation; they were initially told that the first fatality was caused by natural reasons. It is hoped that a hospital vessel will be organized to manage the spread and those affected by the virus. We are reportedly dealing with the Andes strain, which is rare and the only one capable of human-to-human transmission. Hantavirus is normally spread by rodents and contracted through contact with infected fecal matter and urine.
NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich recently interviewed a man who survived this strain on her show this week:
"It's very gnarly and isn't something I would wish anybody to go through in their lifetime."
— Katie Pavlich Tonight (@KatiePavlichNN) May 7, 2026
WATCH: Three people were killed on a Hantavirus-hit ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Jordan Herbst, who contracted Hantavirus as a teenager, joins Katie to discuss his experiences and has a… pic.twitter.com/tfEjhEyk6j
The World Health Organization is trying to calm the situation, adding this isn't COVID, nor are we near pandemic-levels of concern:
NOW - WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove on Hantavirus: "This is not coronavirus, this is a very different virus... This is not the start of a COVID pandemic." pic.twitter.com/o9hrzOXOgT
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) May 7, 2026
The problem is, we've heard this before, guys.
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