An alleged "patient zero" with hantavirus has been identified on the MV Hondius liner

The first passenger of the MV Hondius cruise ship infected with hantavirus could be an ornithologist from the Netherlands, who observed birds at a landfill in Argentina before boarding. This was reported on May 9 by the New York Post.

The names of 70-year-old Leo Schilperord and his 69-year-old wife Miriam were found by journalists in obituaries published in the newspaper of the Dutch village of Haulerwijk, where the couple lived. According to the New York Post, the couple went on a five-month trip to South America. After visiting several countries, they arrived in Argentina at the end of March. There they visited a landfill on the outskirts of the city of Ushuaia, which is known as a "place of pilgrimage" for ornithologists from all over the world.

According to the publication, the Argentine authorities suspect that at this landfill the couple could have inhaled particles from the feces of the long—tailed rice hamster, the main vector of the Andes strain of hantavirus, the only one capable of being transmitted from person to person.

Four days later, on April 1, Dutch ornithologists boarded the MV Hondius from Ushuaia along with 112 other passengers, many of whom were also scientists, the article notes. After five days on the road, Leo Schilperord showed his first symptoms. He died five days later.

His wife, Miriam, disembarked from the liner on St. Helena Island on April 24. After flying to Johannesburg, she boarded a plane to Amsterdam operated by Dutch airline KLM. However, the crew decided to remove her from the flight due to poor health. She lost consciousness at the airport and died the next day.

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The MV Hondius cruise ship, where an outbreak of hantavirus was recorded earlier this month, arrived at the shores of the Spanish island of Tenerife on May 10 to evacuate. Passengers have already been transported to the quarantine zone on several buses. In the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife, a "dead zone" with an area of more than 1 square kilometer was urgently organized. On May 10, the footage was shown by Izvestia.

The citizens of Spain were the first to land on the shore. They will arrive in small boats in groups of five. They will then be transferred to buses and taken to the local airport. The Spaniards will fly to Madrid on a military plane.

On May 6, the Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa, Aaron Motsoaledi, clarified that the strain that killed the passengers of the liner could be called Andes. According to him, the strain is the only one of 38 of its kind that can be transmitted between humans.

On May 8, representatives of Rospotrebnadzor told Izvestia that this mutation of this disease in Russia is unlikely. According to their information, the situation in the country is under the control of specialists and is stable.