An American influencer trapped onboard the luxury MV Hondius cruise ship near West Africa amid a suspected hantavirus outbreak broke down sobbing over “very real” fears of a major outbreak after three passengers died, with others critically ill.
Jake Rosmarin, a travel influencer from Boston who boasts more than 44,000 Instagram followers, shared a tearful video on Monday after the Dutch cruise liner was refused permission to dock in Cape Verde.
“I am currently on board the MV Hondius. What’s happening right now is very real for all of us here,” he sobbed.
The MV Hondius off the port of Praia. AFP via Getty Images“We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines. We’re people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.”
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and that’s the hardest part. All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity and to get home,” he added.
A cruise passenger breaks down the fears of the hantavirus outbreak on the ship that left three dead. TikTok/jakerosmarinThe MV Hondius requested help from local health authorities Sunday after making its way to the tiny island nation — but has so far been refused permission to dock, the company operating the cruise said.
About 150 people are stuck on the vessel after three people — a Dutch couple and a German national — died following the suspected hantavirus outbreak.
Medics were working to try to evacuate two people with symptoms of the deadly virus.
The ship, which is carrying 17 Americans, was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica when trouble boarded early last month.
A 70-year-old Dutch man died on April 11 after developing a fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea, officials said.
The Hondius cruise ship anchored near Praia, Cape Verde, on Monday, May 4, 2026. APHis body was taken off the vessel two weeks later on the British territory of Saint Helena — some 1,200 miles off the African coast.
His 69-year-old wife was transferred to South Africa at the same time but collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a nearby hospital.
A sick British man was taken off the ship and evacuated to South Africa on April 27.
A map of where the ship was traveling before the hantavirus outbreak. NY Post DesignHe later tested positive for hantavirus — a rare infection spread by rodents that can cause serious respiratory illness or hemorrhagic fever, authorities said.
A third passenger, identified as a German national, died on the ship on Saturday.
The virus spreads mostly by inhaling the virus from infected rodent droppings, saliva or blood.
However, a rare form of the virus — seen only in the Andes Mountains of Argentina and Chile — could possibly spread human-to-human.
Investigators are now rushing to figure out what is causing the infections — and whether the other passengers and crew members are at risk.
With Post wires
