More information has come to light about the origins of the deadly hantavirus cluster aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, as health officials have now identified “Patient Zero,” the first confirmed case, as a 70-year-old Dutch ornithologist who visited a heavily rat-infested landfill just outside Ushuaia, Argentina, just days before boarding.
The incident has already claimed three lives aboard the ship and sparked international contact-tracing efforts across multiple continents.
Patient Zero has been named as Leo Schilperoord, a Dutch birdwatcher traveling with his 69-year-old wife, Mirjam Schilperoord.
The couple made a side trip in late March to a landfill a few miles outside Ushuaia, the southernmost city on Earth, famously nicknamed “The City at the End of the World,” specifically to observe the rare white-throated caracara.
Authorities now believe the pair inhaled aerosolized particles from the droppings or urine of long-tailed pygmy rice rats carrying the Andes strain of hantavirus while at the contaminated site.
Four days after that landfill visit, on April 1, the Schilperoords boarded the MV Hondius expedition cruise ship in Ushuaia along with approximately 112 other passengers.
Leo began showing symptoms, including a fever, headache, stomach pain, and diarrhea, on April 6 and died on the ship five days later.
His wife also succumbed to the virus.
“Mirjam got off the ship, along with Leo’s body, on April 24, during a planned stop on the Atlantic island of Santa Helena. She flew to Johannesburg in South Africa and transferred on a KLM flight bound for the Netherlands but never made it. The crew found her too sick to fly and removed her. She collapsed at the airport and died the next day,” the Post reports.
According to a report from the New York Post, “The couple — from Haulerwijk, a small village of 3,000 people in the Netherlands — were identified in obituaries published in their monthly village magazine.”
The Andes strain of hantavirus is unique because it is the only known variant capable of limited person-to-person transmission, though this remains rare.
Most cases occur through contact with infected rodent urine, droppings, or saliva, often via aerosolized particles when the droppings are disturbed.
A rodent bite or scratch can also transmit the virus, but that is uncommon.
The CDC has classified the risk to the general public in America as “extremely low” and continues to monitor the situation.
Reporter: Will you reconsider leaving the WHO because of the HantaVirus?
Trump: No. We seem to have things under control. Not easily transferable but we’ll see. pic.twitter.com/dtdtp7emYt
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 8, 2026
On Saturday, President Donald Trump directly rejected a reporter’s suggestion to reconsider U.S. withdrawal from the WHO amid the hantavirus scare, stating the U.S. has the situation “under very good control.”
