An American travel influencer has broken down in tears on camera after being trapped aboard a cruise ship near West Africa where three passengers have died in a suspected hantavirus outbreak.
Jake Rosmarin, a Boston-based travel influencer who has more than 44,000 Instagram followers, shared a sobbing video on Monday describing the fear and uncertainty gripping those still on board the MV Hondius.
"I am currently on board the MV Hondius. What's happening right now is very real for all of us here," he said through tears. “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.
Around 150 people remain stuck on the vessel, including 17 Americans, after three passengers, a Dutch couple and a German national died following the suspected outbreak.
The ship was on a weeks-long polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica when the trouble began in early April, according to the New York Post.
Hantavirus is a rare infection that humans usually pick up from rodents. The most common way to get infected is by breathing in tiny particles from an infected rodent's droppings, urine or nesting material.
