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 \u2014 and one of them has already gotten sick. <\/p>\n
The travelers did not realize that they had been exposed to the deadly virus \u2014 which has a mortality rate of up to 40% \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,\u201d the passenger told Spanish newspaper El Pais<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nearly two dozen MV Hondius passengers ditched the voyage and headed back to their home countries almost two weeks ago, a cruiser claimed Wednesday. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe Australian went back to Australia, the one from Taiwan to Taiwan, the Americans to all corners of North America. The Englishman to England, the Dutch to their homes\u2026 I don\u2019t remember the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those passengers, a Swiss man who had returned home with his wife, tested positive for hantavirus on Wednesday, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That patient was initially taken to a Zurich hospital and tested negative for the virus \u2013 which can lie dormant for up to eight weeks.<\/p>\n He was apparently just one of many expedition passengers who decided to hit the road during the Dutch vessel\u2019s two-day stop in the British territory last month.<\/p>\n Argentine investigators now believe that a Dutch couple was responsible <\/a>for bringing the virus onboard, after picking it up from rodents while visiting a landfill during a bird-watching tour in the city of Ushuaia days before the ship departed from the Argentine port on March 20.<\/p>\n Both husband and wife are now dead.<\/p>\n Argentine investigators now believe a Dutch couple who died from hantavirus likely brought it on board after becoming infected during a bird-watching tour in Uishuaia, Argentina. NY Post Design<\/p>\n There is one hole in this theory: authorities previously said that the area and the surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a\u00a0case of the hantavirus<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though usually spread through rat droppings, the WHO said a rare strain of hantavirus that can spread between people \u2014 the Andes virus<\/a> \u2013 is the culprit behind the Hondius outbreak.<\/p>\n The WHO said national governments have begun contact tracing the patients, but experts say there is unlikely to be widespread infection from the outbreak \u2014 because hantavirus isn\u2019t nearly as contagious as, say, COVID-19.<\/p>\n \u201cIt requires large saliva droplets from talking to people. Close, person-to-person spread,\u201d said Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center \u2014 one of the top infectious disease research hospitals in the world. <\/p>\n He added: \u201cWe\u2019re probably looking at more than a \u2018Hello, how are you?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201c[The first victim\u2019s] wife was infected. The doctor who spent time with him. Maybe prolonged conversations over lunch or dinner. It shouldn\u2019t be casual conversations that started this.\u201d<\/p>\n However, there are fears that the contact tracing has started too late. Passengers who left the boat were only informed of the terrifying virus outbreak<\/a> days ago, according to the traveler who spoke to El Pais.<\/p>\n The passenger claimed that the WHO didn\u2019t begin contacting the escapees until three days ago, despite the first passenger getting sick on April 6.<\/p>\n That patient, a 70-year-old Dutchman, died on April 11 \u2014 almost two weeks before the Saint Helena stop.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n In Saint Helena, his ill wife disembarked with his body \u2014 and nearly two-dozen other passengers.<\/p>\n The WHO said Wednesday<\/a> that the ship\u2019s operating company, Oceanwide Expeditions, had recently emailed departed passengers about the outbreak that had overtaken the ship, but didn\u2019t specify when that communication began.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational contact tracing is ongoing.\u00a0Passengers who disembarked from the ship were\u00a0informed of the hantavirus case\u00a0by the ships\u2019 operators\u00a0and asked to report any signs and symptoms,\u201d a WHO representative told The Post in a statement, adding that this is how they learned of the case confirmed in Switzerland. <\/p>\n A third passenger has died and at least eight others have become sick with the virus while onboard the 353-foot vessel. @DrTedros\/X<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with national authorities and the ship\u2019s operators, our teams have built a list of who was where when,\u00a0in order to\u00a0ensure\u00a0that\u00a0any\u00a0potential exposure\u00a0is\u00a0documented\u00a0and\u00a0people can\u00a0get help if they develop symptoms,\u201d the rep said. \u201cThis contact\u00a0tracing\u00a0also helps to\u00a0contain\u00a0any potential\u00a0spread.\u201d<\/p>\n An Oceanwide Expeditions spokesperson said company officials were \u201ccurrently working on details of passengers and crew who embarked and disembarked on the various legs of the voyage.\u201d<\/p>\n But the passenger believed their efforts were too little, too late. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were in touch with them and kept asking ourselves, \u2018When are they going to tell them something?\u2019 Some people weren\u2019t contacted until yesterday,\u201d they reportedly said. <\/p>\n The deceased Dutchman\u2019s wife, who also disembarked in Saint Helena, later succumbed to the virus<\/a> at a Johannesburg hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Wednesday, three patients believed to be infected with the virus were evacuated from the ship and taken to receive medical attention in the Netherlands. AP<\/p>\n A third passenger has died and at least eight others have become sick with the virus while onboard the 353-foot vessel, which departed from Cape Verde \u2014 where it was denied port entry on Monday \u2014 and began a three-to-four-day-long journey to the Canary Islands Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n Earlier in the day, three patients \u2013 a 56-year-old British national, a 41-year-old Dutch citizen and a 65-year-old German \u2013 believed to be infected with the virus were evacuated from the ship<\/a> and taken to receive medical attention in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Eerie photos showed at least one of the patients wearing head-to-toe protective gear on a gurney as they were removed from an ambulance and escorted to a waiting jet at the port in Cape Verde\u2019s capital city, Praia.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two passengers believed to be seriously ill were received hours later by \u201cspecialist medical and screening teams\u201d in the Netherlands, while a second aircraft carrying the third patient \u2014 who is in stable condition \u2014 experienced delays, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. <\/p>\n Among those evacuated was the ship\u2019s doctor, who was once in serious condition but has improved, Spain\u2019s health ministry said.<\/p>\n The WHO and Oceanwide Expeditions maintained Wednesday that the ship is expected to port and disembark in the Spanish resort city of Tenerife \u2013 though that possibility was reportedly a source of tense debate between local authorities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands, told reporters Wednesday that his government has not received detailed information on how the process will be carried out \u2013 and raised fears that passengers could spread the hantavirus to citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n