A Dutch birdwatching couple have been identified as the first cases in the deadly Andes virus outbreak aboard MV Hondius cruise ship
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A Dutch birdwatcher who ventured to a landfill site dubbed the “end of the world” has been pinpointed as patient zero in the fatal hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.
Ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, 70, stepped onto the MV Hondius alongside his wife following an ill-fated trip to the rubbish tip in Argentina. Leo became the first passenger to succumb to the virus while on the vessel.
His wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, left the ship with his body but heartbreakingly passed away while trying to catch a flight to the Netherlands from South Africa.
The pair, hailing from Haulerwijk, a modest village of 3,000 residents in the Netherlands, were remembered in obituaries featured in their local monthly village publication, the Sun reports.
Before stepping aboard the MV Hondius, Leo and Mirjam had been on a five-month journey throughout South America. On 27th March, they made their way to a landfill site four miles beyond the city of Ushuaia, reports the Mirror.
The sprawling rubbish tip on the town’s fringes serves as a habitat for uncommon Patagonian bird species, including the White-bellied Seedsnipe. The location, labelled “the end of the world” and avoided by locals, draws birdwatching enthusiasts from afar.
Argentinian officials suspect the Dutch pair picked up the dreaded Andes strain of the hantavirus at the location, most likely through contact with infected rodents at the waste facility. Four days later, on April 1, the pair embarked on the MV Hondius from Ushuaia, joining 112 fellow passengers. By April 6, Leo was experiencing fever, headache, stomach pain and diarrhoea. Tragically, he died on the vessel five days afterwards, with his body remaining on board until the ship reached St Helena on 24th April.
Mirjam accompanied his body to South Africa but soon began feeling ill herself. Her condition deteriorated as she prepared to board a KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam.
She briefly made it onto the aircraft but was refused permission to fly and was rushed to a South African hospital instead, where she died the following day on April 26. A third passenger from the ship, a German national, has also lost their life.
“Like birds in flight,” read one of the obituaries published in Dutch in the April edition of the Haulerwijk magazine. “We will miss you and the stories.”
The number of hantavirus cases linked to the outbreak aboard MV Hondius has risen to six, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Saturday. Of these, three British nationals have tested positive.
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