A passenger onboard the cruise ship stricken with an outbreak of a rare and deadly disease that has already killed three has offered a saddening update.
Jake Rosmarin, a travel influencer with over 44,000 followers on Instagram, shared a video to his page on Monday concerning the ship – a Dutch cruise liner named MV Hondius – which was denied permission to dock in Cape Verde.
Multiple reports have described an outbreak of Hantavirus aboard the ship, but Rosmarin’s video has given a deeper insight.
In visible tears, he said: “I am currently on board the MV Hondius. What’s happening right now is very real for all of us here.
“We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines. We’re people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.
“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.”
Reports state that the MV Hondius requested help from local authorities upon approaching the island of Cape Verde on Sunday, May 3. The company operating the cruise, however, revealed they were refused permission to dock.
At the time of writing, an estimated 150 people are stuck on the ship, with three passengers suspected of having died of Hantavirus so far; a Dutch couple and one German national.
One of the Dutch nationals, a 70-year-old man, is said to have passed away on April 11 after developing a fever, headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
It’s said his body was not removed from the vessel until two weeks after his death. His wife, 69, was transferred to South Africa from Saint Helena, but collapsed at Johannesburg airport and died at a nearby hospital.
The third and most recent victim, a German national, is said to have died aboard the cruise liner on May 2.
As per the CDC, Hantavirus is an infection contracted through inhaling infected rodent feces, saliva, or blood, which can cause serious respiratory illness or hemorrhagic fever.