Leo Schilperoord, the Dutch ornithologist whose lifelong pursuit of the rare and beautiful ended in a global health emergency, has been identified as patient zero in the deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard the Expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, according to Argentine authorities.Authorities believe the 70-year-old man and his wife, 69-year-old Mirjam Schilperord, contracted the virus while watching birds at a landfill outside Ushuaia in late March.
The couple from Houlerwijk had spent five months traveling across South America. They first arrived in Argentina on 27 November before traveling through Chile and Uruguay and returning to Argentina for another bird-watching trip.A longtime bird lover, Schilperoords co-authored a study on the pink-footed swan in the Dutch ornithological journal Het Vogeljaar in 1984. His travels also took him to Sri Lanka in 2013, where he joined a private bird-watching and wildlife tour and saw the rare Serendib Scops Owl.On March 27, the couple visited a landfill outside Ushuaia that attracts bird lovers searching for the white-throated caracara, also known as Darwin’s caracara after Charles Darwin.Authorities suspect the couple inhaled virus particles from the feces of long-tailed pygmy rice rats, which contain the Andes strain of hantavirus, the only known form capable of spreading from person to person.“It is common for bird watchers to visit the landfill because there are so many birds there,” photographer and local guide Gaston Brati told Ansa Latina. He added, “It’s a mountain of trash that today far exceeds the limits initially established by officials,” as quoted by the New York Post.Four days later, the pair boarded the MV Hondius in Ushuaia on 1 April with more than 100 passengers, many of whom were birdwatchers and scientists.Leo Schilperord developed symptoms such as fever, headache, stomach ache and diarrhea on 6 April and died on board the ship five days later.Mirjam Schilperord disembarked from the ship with her husband’s body during a scheduled stop on the Atlantic island of St. Helena on 24 April. She later traveled to Johannesburg on an Airlink flight and was preparing to board a KLM flight to the Netherlands when airport staff discovered she was too ill to proceed. She collapsed at the airport and died the next day.The MV Hondius was carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries when a cluster of serious respiratory illnesses was first reported to the World Health Organization on May 2. By then, 34 passengers had disembarked on the Atlantic islands before the ship headed for Cape Verde.The subsequent evacuation operation resulted in 94 people being returned to their home countries, 41 days after the ship departed from southern Argentina and nine days after the first positive hantavirus test result.
voting
What is most important to prevent Hantavirus outbreaks?
The MV Hondius later departed from Tenerife for the Netherlands after many of the remaining passengers and crew members were evacuated.An obituary published in the Hollerwijk Village magazine said, “Like birds flying.” “We’ll miss you and the stories.”