Passenger who was aboard hantavirus ship says travelers were not well informed after first death

A passenger who was on the cruise ship experiencing a deadly hantavirus outbreak says those on board were “not well informed” about the severity of the situation after the ship’s captain first announced the death of one of the travelers.

Turkish travel vlogger Ruhi Cenet recorded video of the captain of the Hondius informing passengers on April 12 that a fellow passenger had died, while reassuring guests that the ship was safe. Two more passengers have since died and five more are believed to have been infected by the rare Andes strain of hantavirus, which can be transmitted from person to person.

Cenet recorded a video in which the captain gets on a microphone to tell the ship of about 150 passengers about the death on the vessel.

“This is my sad duty to inform you that one of our passengers sadly passed away last night,” he says.

“Tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes, we believe,” he continues. “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 ship is safe. This gentleman, unfortunately, succumbed to natural causes. And like I say, we do what we can in order to continue in a safe and dignified way.”

Turkish travel vlogger Ruhi Cenet was among passengers who disembarked the Hondius in Saint Helena on April 24. (TODAY)

Cenet said everything continued as normal after the captain’s April 12 announcement.

“Knowing that we didn’t get isolated and we didn’t take any caution for a solid 12 days, for my part, is a very sad situation,” he said.

In response to Cenet’s video of the captain’s announcement, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said that “at the time of the first death on 11 April, the cause of death was unknown and there was no evidence of a virus or contagion on board.”

Cenet disembarked from the boat on April 24 in Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic. There were 30 passengers who left the ship in Saint Helena, according to a press update released May 7 by Oceanwide Expeditions. One of them was an individual who died April 11 while the ship was at sea, according to a timeline provided by the company.

Oceanwide Expeditions said the first case of hantavirus was not reported until May 4.

The company said all of the guests who left in Saint Helena have been contacted, and it is “working to establish details of all passengers and crew” who embarked and disembarked on various stops by the ship since March 20. Six of the passengers who left are Americans, according to the company.

People are being monitored in Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands after leaving the ship, authorities in those countries said.

A spokesperson for the Dutch Health Ministry told NBC News on May 7 that a flight attendant is in the hospital and is being tested for hantavirus. A Dutch woman who died after contracting hantavirus was “briefly” on board a flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam and was removed from the plane before takeoff, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said May 6.

The Hondius is expected to reach the Canary Islands this weekend. (AFP via Getty Images)

American passengers have returned to their homes in Virginia, Georgia, California and Arizona, authorities in those states said. None have shown symptoms of hantavirus but they are being monitored.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. State Department released a statement on May 6 saying they are jointly monitoring the situation.

“The Department of State is leading a coordinated, whole-of-government response including direct contact with passengers, diplomatic coordination, and engagement with domestic and international health authorities,” the statement said.

Dr. Ashish Jha, a senior fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center at the Kennedy School, spoke on TODAY May 7 about whether Americans should be worried about any possible outbreak.

“For the broader public, this is not a huge concern,” he said. “This virus just doesn’t spread that easily from person to person. ... This is not like Covid or flu, this is not going to become a major global outbreak.”

Jha added that he’s “not particularly worried” about the illness mutating into something more dangerous and that experts have known about hantavirus for “about six decades.”

The leading theory for the cause of the outbreak is that a Dutch couple who died from hantavirus contracted it on a bird-watching trip in Argentina before boarding the ship. Two Argentine officials investigating the genesis of the outbreak told The Associated Press that the couple visited a landfill in the city of Ushuaia, where they may have been exposed to rodents, which can spread hantavirus to humans.

The rare Andes strain of the virus, which can be transmitted from human to human, is particular to South America, according to Jha.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said on May 7 that the ship is expected to reach the Canary Islands by May 10 and passengers could start being evacuated a day later.