Carlos Ferello, the only Argentine on board the MV Hondius cruise shipwhich sailed from Ushuaia on April 1 and in which an outbreak of hantavirus caused the death of three passengers, he assured this Sunday that “it was a disgrace”, while saying that he began a quarantine period while waiting to be transferred.
“It was different from what I had thought. It was a disgrace, now we have to spend a few days in quarantine,” said Ferello in statements to the TN channel from the Canarian port of Granadilla, in the Tenerife islandin Spain, where the ship docked this Sunday.
The retired engineer explained that he had embarked on Ushuaiathe southernmost city in Argentina, attracted by navigation and the journey to Antarctica and the South Atlantic.
According to him, the first alarms arose near the archipelago of Tristán da Cunha, considered one of the most remote inhabited places on the planet, when a Dutch couple began to present feverish symptoms.
The man died on board, while the woman was later evacuated to Johannesburg, South Africa, from the island of Saint Helena, where she also died.
“At that moment was when all the alarms went off. They began to do analysis and outline that we had to be isolated,” said Ferello.
The Argentine said that at first he thought it was “a complication” or a common infection, until health authorities confirmed that it was hantavirus.
Days later, new infections were recorded and all passengers began a period of isolation.
“Measures were taken so that we would not be so close together. I was alone, so I always ate, had breakfast and walked alone; I did not have that much contact,” said the Argentine.
Ferello also highlighted the assistance received from the Argentine authorities during the emergency: “The Foreign Ministry and the ambassador were spectacular. They moved, they were concerned. They were in permanent contact, both the Argentine Ministry of Health and the consulates.”
The Argentine consul in Tenerife, Luis María Sobron, confirmed this Sunday to the C5N news channel that Ferello has no symptoms and is in good health, while waiting to be transferred this Monday to the Netherlands, where he will complete his quarantine under strict preventive medical care.
A total of 94 passengers of 19 nationalities disembarked this Sunday in Tenerife of the ship MV Hondius, after a journey of almost 40 days, and a large part of them were transferred by air to their countries of origin, while the rest of the evacuations will be completed this Monday.