MV Honduis another casualty.

One would hope not.

However, remember how Covid spread here? Through air travel from China to N Italy and then throughout Europe.

I hope we have learned lessons but sometimes I doubt it.

Fallingstar

Yes I heard that British passengers will be flown home. Am not sure how that will happen seeing as the incubation period is so long and the passengers could potentially have the hanta virus. Am presuming a special flight will be arranged with precautions taken for staff on board and that the passengers will go to a quarantined area until the incubation period is over and regular testing proves they haven’t got the virus.
Surely they can’t just say cheerio and go home to their families and friends??

They have identified the strain of the Hantavirus as Andes strain, the only one from this group which passes from human to human.
I hope all safety measures are taken and carried out to the letter. The incubation period can extend to 8 weeks. Those passengers must have minimum contact with others and as Fallingstar says, regular testing and several clear tests before letting these people out into their communities.
It will be interesting to see if this scenario happens and if we have learnt anything from dealing with Covid.

MT62

Oh just awful 😞 think this is what killed Gene Hackmans wife

Yes, I believe it was the same thing. Apparently she thought she had Covid, as her resent search history showed this on her Laptop.

I’m not sure all safety measures have been taken.

Apparently 23 people have already left the ship and flown, on commercial flights, to their various homes around the world.

A couple in the UK did this and are now isolating at home.

Everyone on that cruise ship must be feeling so scared and also the same for anyone in quarantine waiting for 60 days to elapse.

Apparently it’s been traced back to a Dutch couple who were birdwatching at a rat infested dump I think.

BlueBelle

What a nightmare stuck on a boat indefinitely, with very ill people and a contagious illness can’t think of anything worse Never been on a cruise, never ever wanted to
Hope it gets resolved soon
Couldn’t it sail back to where it started from and have ambulances waiting to take everyone into confinement for however long the incubation period is

Exactly how I feel. Stuck in a confined space would freak me out. I’ve seen video of the poor staff on these cruise ships and their sleeping accommodation is akin to sardines packed in a tin.

Latest from Amsterdam: KLM Stewardess in hospital with the virus symptoms after Johannesburg return flight.

This is deeply concerning.

Here is a link to an article from 2/2/2020.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-51347836

This, from Professor Carl Henegan, sage and voice of reason:

“ Take the current hantavirus scare. A cruise ship, the MV Hondius, sits off Cape Verde. There are 7 cases in total (2 confirmed, 5 suspected) and 3 deaths, including a Dutch couple and a German national. Passengers have been confined to their cabins while evacuations and disinfection efforts are organised. It is, undeniably, a dramatic story: a floating Petri dish, a whiff of quarantine and a hint of the exotic.

In the past week alone, there have been at least 10 to 15 unique news stories, generating hundreds of articles. For a disease that, in normal times, struggles to attract even a single weekly mention, this represents a surge bordering on the hysterical.

And yet it is worth stepping back for a moment and asking, what are we actually looking at?

Hantavirus is a rare disease. In the United States, which diligently tracks such cases, there have been 890 laboratory-confirmed instances since 1993. In the UK, the situation is even less clear: from 2012 to early 2025, only 11 domestically acquired symptomatic cases have been recorded. Surprisingly, nine of these cases were not linked to cruise ships or exotic travel, but rather to a more mundane source—exposure to “pet fancy rats” or rodents bred as reptile feed.

This is not a pathogen ready to spread through the Home Counties. However, the rarity is not the issue; visibility is.

Diseases that afflict the poor, quietly and persistently, rarely command attention. Tuberculosis killed 1.23 million people globally in 2024. Over a million deaths every year, largely concentrated in less affluent parts of the world. It is one of the most lethal infectious diseases known to medicine, and yet it barely registers in the Western news cycle.

Why? Because TB is familiar, it is slow; It lacks narrative flair, and it does not trap well-heeled passengers in their cabins while helicopters circle overhead.

If you want coverage, you need something else entirely. You need novelty, uncertainty, and above all, proximity to affluence. A cruise ship outbreak ticks every box: a disease with a balcony suite.

This is the uncomfortable truth behind Rosling’s ratio: the media does not report risk, it reports drama. And drama requires context that audiences can imagine themselves in.

A rodent-borne virus in some remote rural setting barely registers. Put that very same virus aboard a cruise ship with buffet queues, balcony cabins and a passenger list that looks uncomfortably like the readership, and suddenly it becomes headline news.

The result is a profound distortion of public perception. We are invited to worry about the improbable while ignoring the inevitable and reality. A handful of hantavirus cases generates dozens of headlines; a million tuberculosis deaths pass with barely a murmur.

If we were to apply Rosling’s lens to the present moment, the imbalance would be obvious. Three deaths linked to a suspected hantavirus cluster have produced hundreds of reports in a matter of days. Meanwhile, tuberculosis continues its relentless toll with scarcely a fraction of that attention. The modern “news-to-death ratio” may not be precisely 8,176-to-1, but the underlying pattern remains intact.

The lesson here isn’t truly about hantavirus; instead, it’s about how we collectively determine what is significant.

Diseases associated with poverty—those that are endemic, predictable, and devastating—often fail to attract media attention because they don’t instil fear in the right audience or in the right way. No one is interested in the thousands of cholera deaths that are too remote, too ordinary, and lack the dramatic impact that draws interest. What commands attention are diseases that puncture our sense of safety, the kind that can slip past the gangway and make themselves at home on a cruise ship.

This post was written by two old geezers who live in a world where risk is misread, priorities are skewed, and the arithmetic of attention bears little resemblance to the arithmetic of death.”

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Latest from Amsterdam: KLM Stewardess in hospital with the virus symptoms after Johannesburg return flight.

Has the world learned nothing from Covid? Allowing people to merrily gallivant around the world when they have been in close contact with a virus is tantamount to negligence. I have an uncomfortable feeling about this. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

My last quoted post should reassure us all perhaps Sarnia 🤞

But then Covid was rare, until it wasn't.
Thanks for your post Fried.

Exactly Maremia. Covid must have started with one or two isolated cases and, because it was ignored and/or belittled, it was allowed to fly around the world.

At the start, we were told Covid was ‘harmless’, ‘just flu’, ‘difficult to pass on’ blah, blah, blah.

Covid could be asymptomatic and ‘harmless’ to some, as apparently this virus can be.

Yet those who have been on the infected ship have already been allowed to fly around the world.

I agree with you Sarnia, I have an uncomfortable feeling about this (maybe, it’s just the horrific memory of the Covid pandemic causing me to spiral a bit) … I really hope I’m wrong.

I heard on the news that there are two UK citizens that disembarked this vessel on St.Helena and flew back here.

They have now notified the authorities and are self isolating.

Did I hear correctly that the incubation period is anything from two to eight weeks?

Not sure the world is prepared for another mass lockdown.

Sarnia

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Latest from Amsterdam: KLM Stewardess in hospital with the virus symptoms after Johannesburg return flight.

Has the world learned nothing from Covid? Allowing people to merrily gallivant around the world when they have been in close contact with a virus is tantamount to negligence. I have an uncomfortable feeling about this. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

Me too, Sarnia

I'm astonished and concerned.

Why on earth were they allowed to fly on commercial flights? And self-isolating at home? Is anyone going to be making sure that they are actually complying with that? It all just seems a little complacent to me.

Am I the only one with no confidence in the WHO in this instance?

GrannyGravy13

Am I the only one with no confidence in the WHO in this instance?

No you are not!
Remember this?

GrannyGravy13

Am I the only one with no confidence in the WHO in this instance?

No, you're not alone there.

Already there’s conflicting ‘advice’ from different countries. Last night’s news report (think it was Sky) said the following (I’m paraphrasing):

1)The ship is currently on its way to the Canaries (possibly Tenerife). The Canary Islands government initially refused permission for it to dock but this has been overruled by the Spanish gov.

2) The Spanish gov says all Spanish citizens will be taken from the ship, in isolation, and taken to Madrid where they will remain in isolation for the remainder of the incubation period. Fair enough!

3) Citizens from other countries will return to their home countries on commercial flights🤷‍♀️

I’m hoping this last point will be swiftly addressed by the governments of the various countries!

Top slot on lunchtime BBC News.

Thanks for your background FGT- hopefully posters will feel somewhat reassured. After testing it is known there are not large numbers of passengers or crew on this ship with this virus. No doubt testing will continue during the incubation period for those currently asymptomatic.

Large numbers carrying this virus are NOT freely gallivanting around the world and crossing borders as happened with the Covid virus. This virus also differs a great deal from the Covid virus in characteristics.

Of those crew and passengers, 2 British 'asymptomatic' passengers have already left the ship returned to the UK. They are currently self isolating until the end of the incubation period. The risk of spread is very low therefore to the UK population as this incident and these 2 UK passengers are being monitored, managed and their risk contained.

There are always will viruses as they mutate. There is always a risk of another pandemic. Experts always give their expert advice about viral risks and predictions of spread to governments. Hopefully the lessons from the Covid enquiry ill be taken on board by the government of the day if and when another virus such as Covid crosses our borders with pandemic risks. Ie act quickly to isolate.

LizzieDrip

Exactly Maremia. Covid must have started with one or two isolated cases and, because it was ignored and/or belittled, it was allowed to fly around the world.

At the start, we were told Covid was ‘harmless’, ‘just flu’, ‘difficult to pass on’ blah, blah, blah.

Covid could be asymptomatic and ‘harmless’ to some, as apparently this virus can be.

Yet those who have been on the infected ship have already been allowed to fly around the world.

I agree with you Sarnia, I have an uncomfortable feeling about this (maybe, it’s just the horrific memory of the Covid pandemic causing me to spiral a bit) … I really hope I’m wrong.

I'm glad I'm not alone. Reports from the tour operator say that 30 people from 12 different countries have left the ship and are making their way home. This includes 7 Britons with 2 of them self-isolating at their home. A stewardess on a KLM flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam is now in hospital after coming into contact with a woman from the cruise ship. How many people have they come into contact with on their journey home? With an incubation period of 8 weeks and possibly infected people travelling, I don't feel we have heard the last of this.

I fear you may be right Sarnia.

Maremia

But then Covid was rare, until it wasn't.
Thanks for your post Fried.

You’re very welcome Maremia!
I found it a good, well balanced read by an expert.