A cruise ship, hantavirus and global PTSD

A cruise ship called the MV Hondius set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina, with 147 people aboard. According to reports, the ship is unlike others. It is not the jolly kind with swimming pools and other amusements. The restaurant and bar are not open around the clock. It is, rather, a cruise ship catering mainly to older, disciplined travellers. Its main purpose is educational tourism: visits to Antarctica and other exotic places to observe nature. It also has strict protocols on board, including sanitising shoes when passengers embark and disembark at ports of call. Unbeknown to the passengers, some among them might have boarded while incubating hantavirus. Reports indicate that the likely index couple had travelled through parts of Argentina and Chile before boarding in Ushuaia. By the time the alarm was raised, three deaths had been linked to the outbreak, with several more confirmed or suspected cases under investigation. A Dutch woman later died in hospital in Johannesburg after disembarking at Saint Helena; a British passenger was treated in South Africa; and other patients were evacuated to Europe after the ship’s stop near Cape Verde. Experts say hantavirus is usually transmitted through contact with infected rodents or their urine, saliva and droppings, especially when contaminated particles become airborne. It was recently in the news when Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in New Mexico in 2025. In most settings, hantavirus is not supposed to be transmitted from human to human. But, like many facts of life, there are exceptions. And this case appears to go against the general belief. The Andes variant is the only known hantavirus strain with documented human-to-human transmission. That transmission is understood to be rare and usually limited to close, prolonged contact. That is the strain suspected in the cruise ship outbreak. Amid the speculation about spread, contagion and safety, the World Health Organisati