‘Patient zero’ of deadly rat virus outbreak revealed as bird watcher who visited landfill branded ‘the end of the world’
PATIENT zero of the deadly cruise ship rat virus outbreak has been identified as a Dutch bird watcher.
Ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, 70, boarded the MV Hondius with his wife after making a fateful trip to a landfill site in Argentina.
Leo was the first patient to die of the virus on board the ship.
His wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, got off the ship with his body but died trying to board a plane to the Netherlands from South Africa.
The couple from Haulerwijk, a village of 3,000 people in the Netherlands, were identified in obituaries published in their village magazine, according to the New York Post.
Before boarding the MV Hondius, Leo and Mirjam were on a five month trip in South America.
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On March 27 they visited a landfill site four miles outside the city of Ushuaia.
A mountain of garbage in the town is home to rare species of Patagonian birds, including the White-bellied Seedsnipe.
The site, dubbed “the end of the world” and avoided by residents, is a popular attraction for bird-loving tourists.
Argentinian authorities suspect the Dutch couple contracted the feared Andes strain of the hantavirus at the site.
What is hantavirus? Bug with 40% mortality rate reaches Europe
By Bethan Moss and Eliza Loukou
THE deadly virus that ripped through Dutch cruise ship the MV Hondius, killing three, is usually transmitted via contact with rodent droppings.
But this particular strain, known as “the Andes virus” is an alarming exception.
Only found in the mountains of Argentina and Chile, the strain is the only hantavirus that has demonstrated the ability to spread between humans.
And the strain could have a terrifying mortality of up to 40 per cent, the WHO believe.
Passengers onboard the MV Hondius, stranded in the Atlantic ocean, could face a weeks-long quarantine as officials scramble to contain a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
So far, three passengers have died while others believed to have contracted the virus have been evacuated from the ship.
Meanwhile, a French national who wasn’t on board the cruise liner has reportedly contracted hantavirus after taking a flight with an infected passenger.
It marks the first case of the deadly disease in a patient who was not on the MV Hondius.
But this is not the first case to be reported in Europe since the outbreak was announced over the weekend.
According to the Swiss health ministry, a passenger who was aboard the MV Hondius is being treated in Zurich – while stressing “there is currently no risk to the Swiss public”.
As for the passengers still on the luxury vessel, they could face a quarantine of up to two months, experts have warned – as the virus has an incubation period of eight weeks.
This means people exposed to the virus might not develop symptoms until eight weeks later.
Hantaviruses are spread by rats, through contact with their urine, droppings and saliva.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are 10,000 to 100,000 cases in humans every year across the world.
Symptoms range from a mild flu-like illness to major respiratory issues or internal bleeding.
Although uncommon, limited human to human transmission has been reported in previous outbreaks of Andes virus – a specific species of hantavirus.
The strain is found largely in Chile and Argentina – where the cruise ship started in March – is the only known variant that can spread through close, prolonged human-to-human contact.
The WHO confirmed on Wednesday that the outbreak on the cruise ship is the Andes hantavirus.
South African officials also confirmed the Andes strain had caused infections in two of the cruise passengers.
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The pair may have been exposed to rodents carrying the virus at a rubbish dump they visited as part of the trip.
Four days later, on April 1, the couple embarked on the MV Hondius from Ushuaia, along with 112 others.
On April 6, Leo reported having a fever, headache, stomach pain and diarrhea. He died on the ship five days later.
But even after his death, shocking footage showed the ships captain assuring passengers the illness was “not infectious”.
Video captured by a Turkish travel blogger shows the captain say the outbreak’s patient zero was believed to have died of “natural causes”.
His body remained on board until April 24 when the ship docked in St Helena.
Mirjam accompanied his corpse to Johannesburg but she too began to fall ill.
Her condition later deteriorated as she prepared to board a KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam.
She boarded briefly but was refused permission to fly and instead taken to hospital in South Africa where she died a day later on April 26.
“Like birds in flight,” read one of the obituaries published in Dutch in the April issue of the Haulerwijk magazine. “We will miss you and the stories.”
Despite authorities investigating the landfill site, an official claims the couple could also have caught the virus in northern Patagonia, where 101 cases of the disease including 32 deaths have been confirmed over the last several months.
Meanwhile the number of hantavirus cases linked to the outbreak on MV Hondius has risen to six, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday.
Of these, three British nationals have confirmed cases.
Two suspected cases of hantavirus in people not on the cruise ship have been linked to a Dutch Mirjam.
A Dutch flight attendant was hospitalised in Amsterdam with a suspected case of the virus after contact with the Dutch woman, but later tested negative.
A total of 22 UK nationals remain trapped on board the MV Hondius which is now steaming towards the Canary Islands where it is due to arrive in Granadilla, Tenerife on Sunday.
The Brits will disembark the ship and be flown home to self-isolate in hotels.
None of the ship’s passengers currently show symptoms of the virus.
Passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses, before being transported through cordoned off sections of the airport, Spanish officials said Friday.
The UK, US, Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands have confirmed they will send planes to evacuate their respective nationals, Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
Once returned to the UK, British passengers and staff will be taken to isolate at a hospital in Merseyside.
The individuals will be transferred to Arrowe Park on the Wirral -previously used for people returning from China at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
