Hantavirus: More Cases Likely Due To Long Incubation Period

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]they could indeed be incubating this virus even if they did get exposed to the virus for example in South America before they board it then there may still potentially be cases to come from that exposure and if there is humanto human transmission on board the ship which is possible there is a strain of virus there's various strains a bit like we've seen in covid there's a strain of hivirus called andes which has been seen to cause human to human transmission previously not very often but it has been documented And it's possible that this has happened on the ship.

[00:00:32]>> The British government's announced that uh British citizens stuck on the cruise ship, which has become the epicenter of a virus outbreak, will be evacuated as soon as possible. Three people have died and two more are critically ill after contracting Hanta virus, a disease usually transmitted um from inhaling rodent droppings. Spain's health minister has said it will allow the cruise liner to dock in the Canary Islands despite the region's president saying earlier that they would not be welcome. I've been speaking to Dr. Michael Hed, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton and I began by asking him how difficult it would be to evacuate those who've been taken ill.

[00:01:19]>> So this is going to be a very complex operation logistically. Uh you would imagine that the aircraft that will be used to transport these three people to the Netherlands will be a bit like a mobile intensive care unit. Her virus does present with very very severe symptoms. We've already seen deaths as part of this outbreak. And in other outbreaks, typically around 20 to 30% of patients do die of the disease. So it is a very nasty bug. Presumably, a boat will come to the ship and transport these patients in some form of isolation to the the airport and then onto the aircraft and then onto the Netherlands where presumably they will go into an isolation unit uh one of their hospitals.

[00:02:00]>> And we've got the British government drawing up plans to try and retrieve more than 20 Britons who are stranded on this liner at the moment. Presumably the only way that is going to happen is either through the same route that you've just described or to continue to the Canary Islands and to dock there.

[00:02:21]>> Yeah, I noticed that um some officials on the Canary Islands aren't so keen on the ship docking there, which I suppose is understandable. We do often have to see a little bit of diplomacy around global health at times like this. But in terms of getting Britain's home, if they are ill, then they will need a specialist flight that has medical care on board. If they are symptom free then perhaps the boats will sail into Europe and onto the UK possibly. Um but there will need to be monitoring of these people for a while. The incubation period of Hans virus can be up to a few weeks. It's not like COVID or measles where typically um if you get exposed to the virus you are infected and show symptoms in a few days. Her virus it can be a lot longer. So for anyone who's on that ship, which is now effectively in lockdown, it's confined to their cabins, all efforts being taken to try to prevent the disease spreading. I mean, this is going to go on, isn't it?

[00:03:18]Because even if there is some way of getting them out, there are going to have to be huge precautions because they could potentially be incubating this virus.

[00:03:27]>> They could indeed be incubating this virus even if they did get exposed to the virus. for example, in South America before they board it. Um, then there may still potentially be cases to come from that exposure. And if there is humanto human transmission on board the ship, which is possible, there is a strain of hivirus. There's various strains a bit like we've seen in COVID. There's a strain of havirus called Andes, which has been seen to cause human to human transmission previously, not very often, but it has been documented and it's possible that this has happened on the ship. So again, the investigation, the epidemiology that looks at the transmission patterns, all of these sorts of things will take time to conclude.

[00:04:08]>> What do we know about how this outbreak has been caused? I mean, I'm sure everyone listening will have heard that it's normally spread by rodents, but it seems very strange to think how passengers on board a cruise ship would have come into contact with rodents, unless of course there's an infestation on the ship.

[00:04:30]>> It's possible. I do not know if there is an infestation on the ship, but that might be one explanation for the transmission on board. Um it looks like from what's been uh written about that at least two of the cases were exploring South America beforehand. So they may have been exposed to infected rats and thus the Hans virus there and bought it on board with them. And then like I said we don't yet know yet whether there is transmission between humans. Thing with cruise ships is they are very very good incubators generally for infectious diseases. We saw that during COVID. Um, norivirus outbreaks are quite common on cruise ships as well because people are often indoors in poorly ventilated spaces and often in quite close proximity to each other. So, if an infectious disease can spread, then a cruise ship is quite a a good place for it to do so.

[00:05:20]>> You talked about the diplomacy that comes into all of this. I'm seeing some remarks from the president of the Canary Islands who's clearly not at all keen on anyone from this ship coming to his territory. But are there any global rules about all of this? Because while you can understand why individual countries may not want to take the risk of contamination, you do also have to think about those people who are on board this ship.

[00:05:49]>> Yes, for sure. It is going to be a very very complex time partly for reasons of diplomacy and also which countries I suppose put their hand up to say yes, we're happy to take these patients here.

[00:06:00]That of course also needs highquality hospitals that can take patients who have well pathogens of high consequence as one of the phrases goes. Um other pathogens would also include things like Ebola where you need sort of full-on isolation units um specially trained staff and so on. The Netherlands does have hospitals like that. U most major European countries also do have hospitals like that as well. The UK has a few. But there's no way to force a country to absorb some patients. I'm sure many people listening will have terrible echoes of perhaps the early stages of the corona virus. I mean is there a a wider risk here that perhaps some new strain of h virus is behind all of this and perhaps there are wider risks here.

[00:06:50]>> Well I think the the wider risks to you know for example you and me is as close to zero as it gets. um if you're on board the ship then it's obviously much more concerning but for the rest of us for example here in the UK we don't need to be concerned about it um we have seen hivirus transmit between humans in the past before though there is a chance it could be a new strain or substrain of a strain for example but hivirus does not transmit so easily as for example covid or measles does which are hugely infectious viruses so it's not going to be the next pandemic it just isn't Well, that was Dr. Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton.