What it’s like being stuck in a hantavirus quarantine for six weeks

May 19, 2026

9 min read

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What it’s like being stuck in a hantavirus quarantine for six weeks

Scientific American spoke to one of the people who are currently being monitored for possible hantavirus infection at the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska

By Tanya Lewis edited by Claire Cameron

Scientific American

Warnings to stay home and social distance to avoid getting or spreading a dangerous virus may be burned into our collective memory of the COVID pandemic. But that’s nothing compared with the quarantine protocols that the 18 Americans who were exposed to hantavirus on a cruise ship are currently experiencing.

That’s what Jake Rosmarin, one of the passengers who was onboard the MV Hondius, the cruise ship on which several passengers became infected with or killed by a deadly hantavirus called the Andes virus, is currently doing.

Rosmarin, a Boston-based travel content creator, has traveled the world and visited all seven continents. He had been on several previous cruises with Oceanwide Expeditions before the MV Hondius voyage, which visited some of the most remote islands in the South Atlantic before it became a floating nightmare.

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Now, kept in an isolated, airtight facility with extremely limited contact with other people, Rosmarin has been posting videos on social media that chronicle his experience, first onboard the ship and now in the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Neb., where he is about a week into a mandatory quarantine that could last up to 42 days.

The isolation, Rosmarin says, is nothing like staying home during COVID—he can’t even open a window: “It’s crazy to me to think that I could be in this room for 42 days and literally not get to breathe fresh air,” he says.

Scientific American spoke to Rosmarin on May 15. From his quarantine room, he talked about what the facility has been like, what the health and safety procedures have been and how he’s been making the best of his situation.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

Tell us a bit about who you are and how you came to be on this cruise.

I went on my first trip with Oceanwide Expeditions in January 2023. Before the end of that year, I started a partnership with them where they would send me on trips, and I kind of would talk about these trips and promote the company. One of the trips I proposed was this Atlantic Odyssey trip, because it visits some of the most remote islands in the world. I flew out on March 29 and departed on the ship on April 1. [It was to be] a five-week expedition visiting South Georgia Island, Tristan da Cunha, Nightingale Island, Gough Island, Saint Helena, Ascension Island [all parts of British overseas territories], and then we were supposed to end at Cape Verde.

How did you first become aware of the sick passengers? And when were you told that this might be hantavirus?

We were informed pretty quickly when each issue occurred. When the first passenger died, I think he might have passed away in the middle of the night, and we found out in the morning. And who would think it’s hantavirus? It’s such a rare disease that it was not in anyone’s thoughts.

After departing Saint Helena, we found out that there was another medical emergency [and that] we were going to have to make a stop at Ascension Island. Around the same time, we found out about the [first dead passenger’s] wife passing away. My first thought was that she passed away from a broken heart. So still nothing suspicious.

Things started to get a little weird when we found out that there were three ill people on the ship and then definitely a little more weird when that third person passed away.

So the ship’s crew didn’t immediately tell you it was hantavirus?

They didn’t know. We didn't find out until that first test result came back from Johannesburg, which was 24 to 48 hours before we were supposed to get off that ship. Overall, the company really did handle it well. And I think what a lot of people didn’t realize is: once we found out all this stuff was happening and once the World Health Organization [WHO] and international governments got involved, it was out of the company’s hands.

You were somewhere off the coast of Cape Verde at that point, right? And is it correct that the local authorities didn’t want to allow the ship to dock?

They were supposed to allow the ill passengers to get off the ship. Morning comes around, and we find out that they’re not cooperating. And that’s when I ended up making my video, which was very emotional because I was scared that we were in this really tough pos