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The recent coverage of a cruise ship hit with a deadly hantavirus outbreak is painfully familiar to cruisers who spent days and weeks trapped in their cabins at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
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Three passengers from the MV Hondius have died, two of whom had confirmed cases of the Andes strain of the hantavirus and one with a probable case. The ship is currently on a multiday journey from Cape Verde, off the coast of western Africa, to the Canary Islands.
The U.S. State Department said Friday that it is arranging a flight for the 17 American passengers to be brought to a quarantine facility in Nebraska. The ship should reach the Spanish-controlled islands on Sunday, with evacuations expected to begin on Monday.
Like the Hondius, the Diamond Princess was just a few weeks into its January 2020 voyage when a passenger tested positive for the coronavirus. The confirmed case turned a birthday celebration for Bill Smedley’s wife into a nightmare of fear and isolation, and abruptly halted Rachel and Tyler Torres’ honeymoon plans.
“It sort of brought back terrible memories that we had because we had no idea the significance of what was happening to us,” Smedley, 72, of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
Smedley said his cruise on the Diamond Princess, where more than 700 people were infected and several others died, was “pretty devastating.”
He said he’s sympathetic to the people on the Hondius because he knows exactly what they are going through.
The Andes strain of the hantavirus can be spread person-to-person and is typically found in parts of Argentina, including where the cruise ship departed on April 1. Unlike Covid-19, the strain doesn’t spread easily through casual contact, an infectious disease specialist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa told NBC News.
Fatality rates, however, can be as high as 50% because it tends to affect organs like the lungs and kidneys.
Some cases may initially present with vague symptoms that progress to respiratory issues. Dr. Pablo Vial, an infectious disease doctor who studies hantavirus at the Institute of Sciences and Innovation in Medicine in Santiago, Chile, told NBC News that some patients with the Andes strain can deteriorate within hours.
Bill and his wife, Colette Smedley, boarded their ship in January 2020 for a 28-day cruise to celebrate Colette’s birthday. The beginning of the trip went smoothly, with visits to Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But about two weeks into their vacation, someone tested positive for Covid.
“They didn’t let us off the ship that Monday morning like we were supposed to depart,” Bill Smedley recalled. “And that Tuesday, they said, ‘Stay in your room and don’t come out.’”
As more passengers tested positive, the ship implemented strict safety protocols and everyone went on lockdown. He said he and his wife spent about three days confined to their cabin before they were allowed out in small groups onto the deck for an hour at a time.
“Everybody was terrified,” he said. “The look on their faces. Nobody would talk to each other; we were in gloves and masks and everything like that.”
Rachel and Tyler Torres, of Shreveport, Louisiana, were also on that cruise to celebrate their honeymoon. Tyler said three times a day, the staff would leave trays of food on the floor outside of the guest room doors.
“The general rule was that they would drop the tray at your door, but you weren’t allowed to open your door until they had walked away to minimize contact,” he said.
Rachel said staff would also stand in the hallways to “make sure that everybody kept quarantine within our rooms.”
Rachel said she tried to distract herself by watching movies and calling family and friends back home. Tyler started blogging about their experience.
The couple flew back to the United States on Feb. 17, 2020, nearly a month after boarding the Diamond Princess. Like fellow passengers, including the Smedleys, they had to quarantine for two weeks at an Air Force base in Texas before they could make the final trek home.
Both the Torreses and the Smedleys were able to leave the base in early March 2020.
Hondius passengers will also be expected to quarantine after arriving back in the U.S. They will be taken to the National Quarantine Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Nebraska Medical Center also has a biocontainment unit where several patients with Ebola were treated in 2014 and patients from the Diamond Princess were treated in 2020.
The Spanish Health Ministry released its protocol plan and will require passengers and staff who were on the ship between April 1 and May 10 — or who had close contact with a confirmed case — to quarantine at a Madrid military hospital under active monitoring.
Gene Sloan, an editor with the travel website The Points Guy, had a similar experience when he was quarantined on the SeaDream, the first cruise ship to set sail in the Caribbean after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said he spent four or five days in quarantine on the ship after someone on the November 2020 voyage tested positive. Sloan said he can relate to the people on the Hondius because the ship he was on was similar in size.
According to cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions’ website, the Hondius has 80 cabins that can accommodate up to 170 passengers. Some photos show cramped cabins with small windows and beds that can sleep two to four people. Other pictures show cabins with large windows and couches.
“They’re both small,” he said. “So it’s a little scary. You feel a little trapped, you know, because you can’t open a window, you can’t open your door.”
Bill Smedley said that after reflecting on his own experience, he “feels for the guys” stuck on the Hondius.
“I know they’re out there, and they’re isolated,” he said.
Tyler Torres said the only advice he could offer cruisers on the Hondius would be to “find something to make the most of the situation.”
Two passengers on the Hondius have used social media to keep the public and their families updated on the situation.
“Still in good spirits and continuing en route to the Canary Islands,” traveler Jake Rosmarin said in an Instagram story early Friday morning.
Kasem Ibn Hattuta, another passenger on the Hondius, said many people on the ship were keeping themselves busy “with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks and that kind of thing.”
“The vibe on the ship might’ve been calm with a bit of concern because we were worried about the sick ones, but now it doesn’t feel different than any other sea days we had before,” he said in an emailed statement via his assistant on Thursday.
He said several people have been out on the ship’s decks for fresh air and bird-watching, and wear masks and social-distance when inside the ship.
The outbreak is believed to have started following a bird-watching expedition from Argentina to Cape Verde.
“Everyone is keeping high spirit, people are smiling and taking the situation calmly,” Hattuta said.
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