Should you need further reason to curtail your relationship with rodents and their bodily fluids – or indeed with cruising – this week offered both.

One hundred and forty nine passengers and crew of the MV Hondius are waiting to be allowed to disembark at Tenerife on Sunday – an ignominious end to what was supposed to be a spectacular voyage on “one of the most environmentally friendly vessels on the polar seas”.

The expedition ship left Ushuaia in Argentina five weeks ago bound for Antarctica, the Falklands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St Helena, Ascension, Cape Verde and eventually the Canary Islands. But by the time it reached Cape Verde, it had all gone tragically wrong. Three people died – a German national and a Dutch couple – and several others (eight at the time of writing) are sick with suspected or confirmed hantavirus, a deadly pathogen that typically spreads through direct contact with rodent saliva or droppings, or aerosolised faeces.

The nightmare for the passengers – two of whom are Irish – does not end when they go ashore. Since hantavirus plays a long game, festering in the body for weeks before symptoms appear, the passengers will be facing periods of quarantine or self-isolation. The UK government has said British nationals will be asked to isolate for 45 days.

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