Hantavirus “Patient Zero” Identified as Ornithologist Who Visited Rat-Infested Landfill Before Outbreak

“Patient zero” in the deadly cruise ship hantavirus outbreak has just been identified.

Up until now, we knew that the first people to die from the rare virus on the fated MV Hondius ship were an elderly Dutch couple. But, we didn’t know their names.

Now, Dutch media outlets have confirmed that 70-year-old Leo Schilperoord and his wife, 69-year-old Mirjam, were the first to be infected and pass away.

Here’s a photo of Leo:

Patient zero in the deadly hantavirus outbreak has been identified as ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, who was on a five-month trip to South America with his wife when they boarded the MV Hondius.

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/xGpWbVUbwH

— AF Post (@AFpost) May 9, 2026

And, here’s a photo of his wife Mirjam:

Dit zijn Leo Schilperoort en zijn vrouw Mirjam. Zij hadden geen kinderen. Leo was ornitoloog. Over Mirjam is weinig bekend. Zo te zien aan de foto is/was ze postbode. Er lijkt niets bijzonders aan het echtpaar. pic.twitter.com/V7a3cSnUZK

— 𝒮𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜🌪 (@Miss_Royal73) May 9, 2026

Leo was an ornithologist, and both he and Mirjam were avid birdwatchers and travelers.

The couple had embarked on a five-month trip to South America.

Just days before boarding the MV Hondius cruise ship, the pair visited a rat-infested landfill in Argentina to go bird-watching.

It was there that authorities believe they contracted the Andes strain of hantavirus — which is transmissible from human-to-human.

The New York Post reported further:

When the Schilperoords returned to Argentina on March 27, they visited a landfill four miles outside the city of Ushuaia.

The spot, overrun with trash, is avoided like the plague by its residents, but serves as a pilgrimage point for birdwatchers from all over the world in search of a rare creature — the white-throated caracara, nicknamed Darwin’s caracara after famed evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin, the first to collect it.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Ushuaia landfill is where Argentinian authorities suspect the Dutch couple inhaled particles from the feces of long-tailed pygmy rice rats, which carry the feared Andes strain of the hantavirus — the only form known to transmit from human to human.

“It is common for birdwatchers to visit landfills because there are many birds there,” Gastón Bretti, a photographer and local guide told Ansa Latina.

“It’s a mountain of waste that today far exceeds the limit initially established by the authorities,” he said of the unsightly place.

Four days later, on April 1, the couple embarked on the MV Hondius from Ushuaia, along with 112 others, many of whom were also bird watchers or scientists. On April 6, Leo reported having a fever, headache, stomach pain and diarrhea. He died on the ship five days later.

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.

As you probably know, the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak has sparked fears of another pandemic (or possible plandemic…)

Several of the cruise ship passengers have already arrived back to the United States, in these states:

NEW: 6 states are now monitoring passengers — and others — who may have crossed paths with people aboard the cruise ship linked to the hantavirus outbreak.

Virginia, Georgia, California, Arizona, and Texas are tracking both passengers and potential contacts. New Jersey is… pic.twitter.com/T4YCi7EaKm

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 9, 2026

NEW: 6 states are now monitoring passengers — and others — who may have crossed paths with people aboard the cruise ship linked to the hantavirus outbreak.

Virginia, Georgia, California, Arizona, and Texas are tracking both passengers and potential contacts. New Jersey is monitoring individuals who may have interacted with someone from the ship.

The outbreak, which originated aboard the MV Hondius, has been linked to at least 3 deaths and 8 reported cases as of May 8, according to reports citing the World Health Organization.

But, experts on the matter say that, unlike COVID-19 which was highly contagious but not very fatal, hantavirus is the opposite.

While it has up to a 40% fatality rate, it is not easily transmissible.

Newsweek explained:

Despite the severity of the MV Hondius outbreak, epidemiologists stress the virus lacks the one ingredient needed to trigger a global crisis: efficient human transmission.

“Pandemic potential is mostly about transmission architecture, not lethality,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins, told Newsweek.

Hantavirus tends to make people seriously ill quickly, limiting how far it can spread. “It’s not the case fatality rate that matters… it’s the ability to transmit between humans,” Harvard epidemiologist Bill Hanage said.

Experts say that even the Andes strain, the only version known to spread between people, does so poorly and usually requires close, prolonged contact.

“It’s very hard to transmit it from one person to another,” Stanford epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch told Newsweek.

That combination—high severity but low transmissibility—means outbreaks can be deadly, but are unlikely to spiral into a pandemic.

ADVERTISEMENT

Yesterday, President Trump rejected a reporter’s question about rejoining the WHO due to the hantavirus.

He confirmed that he believes things are “under control” and that this won’t lead to another pandemic situation.

Watch here:

NEW: President Trump says "we seem to have things under very good control" when asked about Hantavirus.

"They know that virus very well. It’s been around a long time, not easily transferrable, unlike COVID."

"We have very good people studying it very closely.” pic.twitter.com/TSjKxkQUAJ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 8, 2026