Completely chaotic': Japan expert blasts handling of virus cruise ship

A Japanese infectious diseases expert has made waves with videos slamming the government's handling of a quarantined cruise ship, racking up hundreds of thousands of views as passengers start to leave the boat.

The situation on the Diamond Princess was "completely chaotic" and violated quarantine procedures, said Kentaro Iwata, a professor at Kobe University, in unvarnished criticism rarely seen in Japanese officialdom or academia.

"The cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of infection control," said Iwata in videos in English and Japanese posted late Tuesday.

He said he was so concerned at what he saw on the ship during a brief visit on Tuesday that he has placed himself in a 14-day quarantine to avoid infecting his family.

"There was no distinction between the green zone, which is free of infection, and the red zone, which is potentially contaminated by the virus," he added.

"I was in Africa dealing with the Ebola outbreak. I was in other countries dealing with the cholera outbreak. I was in China in 2003 to deal with SARS... I never had fear of getting infection myself," he said in the English video.

"But inside Diamond Princess, I was so scared... because there was no way to tell where the virus is."