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A popular YouTuber who was onboard the MV Hondius cruise when the hantavirus outbreak was spreading has expressed horror that he was allowed to go to a packed wedding more than three weeks after the first infected passenger died.
Ruhi Cenet, who has more than 18 million subscribers for his travel vlog, was on the now-stricken ship for 24 days before he left on April 12 — the day after filming the captain alerting passengers to the first death onboard.
When he left, he traveled with the wife of the 70-year-old Dutchman who had died — a day before she also collapsed and died.
Cenet continued life as usual, and was pictured attending a wedding in his native Istanbul on May 3 — the same day that the World Health Organization finally announced it was responding to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship, three weeks after he disembarked.
“We were not well informed,” Cenet told NBC News, saying that staff on the ship were so convinced the initial death was natural causes that no safety steps were taken.
“Knowing that we didn’t get isolated and we didn’t take any caution for a solid 12 days, for my part, is a very sad situation,” he said.
“I wish everyone was more mindful,” he said,
Cenet attended the wedding a day after South African officials announced they received a positive for hantavirus following the third known death of the cruise outbreak.
The disease has a 40% mortality rate and an incubation period of up to eight weeks.
Cenet told NBC News that he took a blood test when he returned to Turkey and has shown no symptoms, which he attributes to isolating himself in his room.
While the ship heads for port in Spain, the World Health Organization has informed several countries about passengers who had disembarked from the vessel, including several acorss the US.
Others are spread across the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, tCanada, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore and New Zealand.
None of the remaining passengers or crew on the ship are currently symptomatic, the Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions cruise ship company said Thursday.
The risk to the wider public is low, the WHO said. The virus, which typically spreads by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings, appears to be spreading by contact between people, which health authorities insist is both rare and unlikely to be widespread.
“We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity is shown across all countries,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, the WHO’s alert and response director on Thursday.
With Post
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