Three passengers died after a hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, and passengers including travel blogger Jake Rosmarin said they wanted to feel safe, have clarity and get home. The ship carried 88 passengers and 61 crew of 23 nationalities on a 35-day Atlantic expedition that began on 1 April out of Ushuaia, while health authorities said this was the first recorded onboard outbreak of hantavirus.
Rosmarin said in a video posted Monday, “We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines, we are people – people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.” He added, “There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part. All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity and to get home.”
Jan Dobrogowski and the first death
The first passenger to die was a 70-year-old Dutchman who developed respiratory symptoms on 6 April and died five days later. Captain Jan Dobrogowski told passengers after that death: “Tragic as it is, it is due to natural causes, we believe.”
His 69-year-old wife was also onboard and later disembarked at St Helena, where the body was removed from the ship on 24 April when the vessel reached port. The Hondius had also stopped at South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha before St Helena, and authorities in Cape Verde refused to let passengers disembark.
World Health Organization and hantavirus
The World Health Organization said hantavirus kills up to half of those it infects, while the World Health Organization and other health authorities said human-to-human transmission is very rare. That leaves passengers and crew facing a shipboard outbreak that drew attention not just because three people died, but because it was the first recorded onboard outbreak of hantavirus.
Rosmarin’s account gives the clearest picture of what passengers wanted next: safety, clarity and a way home. The article’s facts point to a voyage that moved from an advertised 35-day Atlantic expedition into a public health emergency whose latest known consequence was that passengers were still waiting for disembarkation at Cape Verde.
