The first person to die from hantavirus on MV Hondius has been identified as the remaining passengers begin to be evacuated from the ship.Three people have died following a hantavirus outbreak onboard a Dutch cruise ship that set sail from Argentina on April 1.There’s since been another five confirmed cases of the virus in connection to those onboard MV Hondius. Typically hantavirus is linked to rodents but it’s believed that this strain, the Andes virus, could be because of person-to-person transmission.Today (May 10), the remaining passengers onboard the cruise ship are being evacuated in Tenerife.The Spanish authorities will begin evacuations of the ship by nationality. There’s said to be 17 Americans onboard.Once everyone is off the ship, there’s expected to be six repatriation flights to elsewhere in the European Union and four non-EU flights.

If people test negative and are not displaying symptoms, they will be taken straight to a chartered repatriation flight staffed by medical professionals and containing personal protective equipment such as face masks.As the passengers prepare to exit the vessel, the first person who died from the virus on the ship has been named as 70-year-old Dutch national, Leo Schilperoord.Schilperoord was a ornithologist who had been traveling around South America with his wife, Mirjam Schilperoord. Sadly Mirjam has since died from the virus as well.How did they contract the virus?
The Dutch couple are said to have been keen bird-watchers and has visited a rat-infested Argentina landfill in late March in the hopes of capturing a glimpse at rare species of Patagonian birds, including the White-bellied Seedsnipe.Supposedly the landfill, located four miles outside the city of Ushuaia, is popular with bird-watchers with this in mind. But Gastón Bretti, a photographer and local guide, warned that this particular site is ‘a mountain of waste that today far exceeds the limit initially established by the authorities’, he told Ansa Latina.

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