The two Dutch people who died during their trip on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean are from Haulerwijk in Friesland. According to ‘Algemeen Dagblad’, it concerns a couple who are well-known in the village. The authorities are investigating whether they died from the effects of the hantavirus.
Source: AD.nl
According to an acquaintance of the couple, the two had just returned from a trek through Africa. Then they went on a cruise. They were known as avid nature lovers and bird watchers, who often went out to take images of wild animals and nature. They were household names in that world.
Beautiful trip
“The wonderful journey they made together was abruptly and definitively cut short,” a family member said via the aid organization ‘On behalf of the Family’. This organization is part of Victim Support Netherlands and maintains contact with the media on behalf of families in the event of major incidents.
The family ‘can’t yet understand’ that they ‘have to miss them’. “We want to bring them home in peace and commemorate them.” The couple’s family understands that this event ‘generates a lot of media attention’ and asks the media to exercise restraint when it comes to the privacy of the couple and their family.
The family is still completely overwhelmed by what happened, says spokesperson Selma Hetharia. “The man and the woman are not even home yet, so it is all very precarious. The relatives really need the time and peace to process this in peace.”
Tragic news
The first symptoms are said to have been diagnosed in the man. He died on board the ship on April 11. His body was then disembarked in St Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the south of the Atlantic Ocean.
Crew and passengers requiring medical assistance will receive it as soon as possible
His wife was urgently transferred to a medical center in Johannesburg, South Africa. She died there more than two weeks later, on April 26. So the two died before the virus was officially diagnosed. A 69-year-old Briton is still in intensive care.
When asked, the municipality of Ooststellingwerf, which includes Haulerwijk, speaks of ‘tragic news’. “If it turns out that it is indeed a resident of our municipality, contact will of course be made with the relatives to provide help and support,” a spokesperson said.
The Royal Association of Dutch Shipowners, which represents the interests of shipowners and the maritime sector in the Netherlands, said in a response that it is essential that crew and passengers who need medical assistance receive it as soon as possible. “That is beyond dispute.”
Hantavirus or not?
To date, one person on board the cruise ship has been found to actually have a hantavirus infection after laboratory testing, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
This concerns the British passenger who is currently admitted to intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa. Which variant is involved is being investigated. According to the WHO, there are also five people in the picture who may also be infected. There is a Dutchman among them, the shipping company confirmed on Monday afternoon.
To protect the local population, those on board will not come ashore in Cape Verde
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reports that it is currently unknown whether the cases are related and whether multiple cases involve a hantavirus.
What now?
Cape Verde health authorities are currently preparing for a possible medical evacuation of passengers from the cruise ship. That ship is moored off the coast of Cape Verde, but is not allowed to dock in the port of Praia due to possible hantavirus infections, the government agency responsible for public health confirms.
The possible medical evacuation by ambulance flight would be intended for “patients under observation”. Health authorities emphasize that the situation is under control and that there is currently no risk to the population of Cape Verde.
According to the Cape Verdean News Service A Naçao the president of Cape Verde’s National Health Institute, Maria da Luz, said the ship should resume its journey and that those on board “will not come ashore in Cape Verde.” According to da Luz, that decision was made “to protect the local population”.
