Oceanwide Expeditions Recounts Three Deaths on MV Hondius — Hantavirus Los Angeles
Three passengers died after a hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius, which left Ushuaia on April 1 with 114 travelers, 61 crew members, and a fare that put the trip beyond reach for many. The ship was still at sea 33 days later, anchored off Cabo Verde, after the illness spread through the voyage.
MV Hondius Departure
Oceanwide Expeditions boarded passengers and crew in Ushuaia, Argentina, for a six-week expedition visiting remote islands. The ship’s passengers were mostly from Great Britain, the United States, and Spain, and the voyage cost between 15,000 and 24,000 euros per person.
Ruhi Çenet, an influencer who documented the trip, is among the sources describing what happened on board. His account places the crisis in a narrow window: between April 4 and April 6, a 70-year-old Dutch passenger began feeling unwell and reported fever, diarrhea, and headache.
Oceanwide Expeditions Numbers
The operator changed its passenger numbers several times during the crisis, while the ship continued toward Cabo Verde. That shifting tally sits alongside the central fact of the case: three passengers died during the outbreak, leaving everyone on board to reckon with the illness before the vessel reached port.
Jake Rosmarin, a photographer from Boston, and Kasem Ibn Hattuta, an Arabic vlogger, were among the passengers aboard the ship. An anonymous Spanish passenger described the type of travelers on the voyage by saying, "Principalmente, es gente que quiere ver naturaleza en estado puro" and added, "Esto, para la gente que tiene cierta sensibilidad con los animales, es el mejor viaje posible, te permite ver un mundo sin humanos".
Cab o Verde Arrival
The ship’s route matters because the passengers did not remain in one place. They were spread across an international group aboard a polar expedition vessel, and the crisis reached them while the ship was still offshore near Cabo Verde after 33 days at sea. The same trip that drew people looking for remote scenery ended with a medical emergency that followed them across the voyage.
The immediate issue for passengers and crew is separation from the ship and from one another after a long crossing that included rough conditions in the Scotia Sea, where one Spanish passenger said, "Son aguas movidas, si no estás preparado para el mar, no lo pasas muy bien. Pero tiramos a base de biodraminas". For anyone who traveled on the MV Hondius, the practical consequence is that the outbreak is tied to a fixed passenger list, a fixed route, and a period of exposure that began early in the journey and ended only after the ship anchored off Cabo Verde.
