May 9, 2026:

Published
|
Updated
If you attended a recent wedding with YouTuber Ruhi Çenet in Istanbul, then you may want to get checked for the deadly hantavirus before it’s too late!
Here’s the scoop … Çenet was one of 147 passengers and staff aboard the doomed MV Hondius cruise, which is now being investigated for a suspected hantavirus outbreak by the World Health Organization. During the trip in April, three passengers died, possibly from hantavirus, which is an infectious disease typically spread through contact with rats and other rodents.
On May 3, Çenet attended the crowded wedding in Istanbul, Turkey — and he caught a lot of heat from people online after a photo surfaced on social media showing him at the event.
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Days later, Çenet posted to Instagram that he only went to the wedding because the WHO had not yet announced the hantavirus probe. But the WHO informed the world of the outbreak on May 3 … and Çenet vaguely acknowledges this saying the photo “looks like it was taken after May 2nd.” Sounds like Çenet somehow didn’t get the memo at first.
The outbreak occurred around April 1 when the MV Hondius ship embarked on an “Atlantic expedition” from Ushuaia, Argentina, enroute to Spain’s Canary Islands with several stops along the way. Officials believe a Dutch couple contracted the virus on a bird-watching trip while visiting a landfill before boarding the ship. After the couple succumbed to their illness … another Dutch citizen, a British national, and a German national died in the ensuing outbreak.
Çenet told NBC News he got off the boat on April 24 in St. Helena — a remote island in the south Atlantic. He says he has no symptoms of the virus — which include fever and muscle aches — but he’s now quarantined and closely monitoring his health. Çenet is a popular Turkish YouTuber who took the fateful journey for a documentary project about the South Atlantic archipelago.