'Patient Zero' in deadly hantavirus cruise ship outbreak was Dutch ornithologist Leo Schilperoord

[question everything]

Source: NY Post

Patient Zero in the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak has been identified as ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, whose passion for birds may have cost him his life.

The 70-year-old man and his wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, 69, were on a five-month trip to South America. They first landed in Argentina on Nov. 27, and traveling through Chile, Uruguay and then back to Argentina in late March, where they went on a fateful birdwatching adventure.

The couple — from Haulerwijk, a small village of 3,000 people in the Netherlands — were identified in obituaries published in their monthly village magazine. 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.


Read more: https://nypost.com/2026/05/09/world-news/hantavirus-patient-zero-was-dutch-ornithologist-leo-schilperoord/

[eggplant]

1. "is avoided like the plague"

as it were.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Unsparingly chosen language, to be sure. nt

[BigMin28]

6. Pay attention

to the locals is always good advice.

[Prairie Gates]

8. The editor had a chuckle, great fun was had by all

[IronLionZion]

2. "is avoided like the plague by its residents"

Might be a good idea to mask up if going birdwatching in such places.

[70sEraVet]

3. A shame that such a beautful, harmless hobby resulted in their deaths.

I hope for the best for the rest of the passengers. I understand that the survival rate is rather dismal.

[Conjuay]

10. I don't think jet-setting around the world just to see this bird or that is such a 'harmless' hobby

The carbon footprint these people leave is ridiculous.
Read Christian Cooper's book if you don't believe me.

[littlemissmartypants]

11. Wasn't he an actual bird scientist??

I guess we could say he died doing what he loved and did it for his entire life as a professional contribution to humanity and the natural world, couldn't we?

We certainly don't have to worry about him expanding his carbon footprint now, do we?

[Conjuay]

15. my point remains.

Of all the polluting forms forms of transport, cruise ships are probably the worse.

But hey, at least Hunan China won't get blamed for this one.

[EX500rider]

16. "Of all the polluting forms forms of transport, cruise ships are probably the worse" While true...

......the entire cruise industry accounts for less than 0.1% of global carbon emissions.


Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are primarily driven by fossil fuel combustion for energy, accounting for over 70% of total emissions. Major sources include electricity/heat production (33%), transportation (14–27%), industry (22–24%), agriculture (10–22%), and buildings

[littlemissmartypants]

17. By referencing a book about Birdwatching...

The appearance in the post is that a dead birdwatcher's to blame and not cruises.

The point is unclear as your "evidence" doesn't specifically or irrefutably support the premise of your argument.

I'm interested. What are the specific steps and recommendations you and your family follow towards your lowest carbon footprint?

As for blame, nobody ever wins that game, do they?

[womanofthehills]

20. Can you imagine the pesticides cruise ships are applying this week

If you don’t get Hanta virus, you might get pesticide poisoning.

[BidenRocks]

5. Wasn't 60 Minutes and Anderson Cooper birdwatching?

[Cheezoholic]

7. You'd think a free 40 billion from a Magalomaniac would help clean that up. Wait, their leader is a Magalomaniac n/t

[JI7]

9. Did they put on any protective gesr ? Would it have helped ?

[LeftInTX]

18. We used to watch birds at landfills

We used to watch vultures at illegal dumps. We used to dump raw chicken to attract vultures and then take our kids to "see the show".

I really don't think hantavirus was on his radar.

Hantavirus and plague are weird. In the US they are endemic to certain areas, but they aren't always active and occurances tend to be sporadic. Hence when they occur, they tend to catch people off-guard.

Plague tends to happen like this "The dead raccoon that we threw away. We're always throwing dead animals away".

My son stayed at an Air BnB in Colorado. It had a rat infestation.

And then we stayed at one in CO. We didn't see rats inside, but once we got in hot tub, we saw them coming inside and outside the house. They were scambling under the hot tub

You never know where these types of things will happen.

[question everything]

22. Hope you complained and got your money back. Gross

[womanofthehills]

23. Supposedly- 94% of Hanta virus is in NM, Colorado, Arizona

So you guys lucked out.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. It might have protected against the virus, but ...

... it would have interfered with using binoculars, and would interfere with hearing. I wonder if they gave any thought to the dangers of a landfill.

[Skittles]

12. there goes Trump's MADE IN CHINA bit

[popsdenver]

13. How about

Dumps=Rats=Hantivirus...........

[Danascot]

14. Answers to questions I had

about how people get hantavirus and how it is transmitted between people

People usually get hantavirus from contact with rodents in areas where the disease is present, especially when exposed to their urine, droppings, and saliva.

The Andes virus, found only in South America, is the only type of hantavirus that is known to spread person-to-person. This spread is usually limited to people who have close contact with the ill person. This includes direct physical contact, prolonged time spent in close or enclosed spaces, and exposure to the sick person's body fluids.

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/situation-summary/index.html

[LisaL]

24. Close prolonged contact is not necessary for transmission.

The linked article describes how this virus spread at a birthday party. It also appears to be capable of transmission through inhalation. And as we all know from covid, viruses can mutate and become more infectious.
"On the basis of evidence from five reconstructed person-to-person transmission events, the route of infection in secondary cases was possibly through inhalation of droplets or aerosolized virions "
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2009040

[LtTx]

21. Haven't they decided it was in Patagonia?

Schilperoord and his wife, Mirjam, 69, were experienced birdwatchers from Haulerwijk, the Netherlands, on a five‑month South American expedition. They visited northern Patagonia 25–30 days before arriving in Ushuaia, where they were in an area with 101 recent hantavirus cases and 32 deaths MSN. Argentine health officials now believe they contracted the Andes strain of hantavirus there, the only hantavirus known to transmit between humans MSN+1.

Earlier reports suggested exposure at a landfill near Ushuaia, but new evidence points to northern Patagonia as the more likely site MSN. The Andes strain is carried by long‑tailed pygmy rice rats, and infection can occur through inhalation of aerosolized particles from rodent droppings or urine AOL+1.