The Heat: Ebola and Hantavirus | What are the risks?

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]A new case of Hanta virus was confirmed in Spain this week. A passenger from a cruise ship tested positive and is isolating at a hospital in Madrid. Three people in all have died in the outbreak tied to that ill- fated cruise. In Central Africa, it is Ebola raising concerns. The World Health Organization says 220 deaths have been linked to Ebola and more than 900 suspected cases identified. The vast majority are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but are spilling into neighboring Uganda as well. The WHO's director general warns that the deadly virus is spreading fast.

[00:00:37]He says authorities are playing catch-up because of delays in detecting cases.

[00:00:43]>> We're now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level.

[00:00:55]To discuss the response to these two threats, we welcome Christian Lindmire.

[00:01:00]He is spokesperson for the World Health Organization. Thanks so much for being with us.

[00:01:06]>> Thanks for having me, Anand.

[00:01:08]>> Uh, as we reported, the Hunter virus outbreak was initially detected on a cruise ship. Three people died. Uh it's a virus that is usually spread by wild rodents but can be transmitted uh person to person uh person to person in rare cases when there is close contact. How concerned is the WHO uh of the persontoerson transmission?

[00:01:33]>> Look the um the overall risk from that hunter virus cruise ship as it's been referred to is low for the people on board of that ship. Of course, that's a different scenario because this is a a a good amount of people over 80 I think passengers and crew living in tight confined spaces sharing meals together, sharing space together, uh sharing the same facilities together. So that of course uh sometimes can end up in in close contact. But yet uh let's not forget as you mentioned the three deaths occurred but they occurred already in the very beginning. Since then the measures taken have worked and the fact that now in Spain a case was confirmed one of those from the ship who actually were in in uh in isolation in quarantine uh is exactly showing that the system works the quarantine works and we are not expecting any further me any further incidents here any further transmissions what we had so far we believe that should be it. We might have a single case here and there. Let's not forget hunter virus is not unknown to the world. It is something which exists and has a few cases all around the world every year.

[00:02:48]>> So as you say the risk is low. Uh so you're confident that uh this virus has been contained.

[00:02:57]>> It's always difficult to give absolutes in such a case but the way it looks right now um it seems contained. Um but again the quarantine of the people is important. The contacts are have been have been contacted of those on the flights on on ships those who deboarded earlier. So that's all still ongoing and we're waiting uh for further days until all this time is over but it looks pretty positive.

[00:03:22]>> Okay, let's turn to the Ebola virus.

[00:03:25]This virus is now uh been there's been a resurgence of the virus. There is no vaccine but this is a different strain.

[00:03:33]What can you tell us about this strain?

[00:03:35]>> Yeah, this is the situation here that uh the early cases were tested even against Ebola SA the one we know from the earlier outbreaks 2014 15 and in between um but this is the bunjo um strain which is known but far less common and it didn't show positive on the soya test because that's not what it is and tests for bunda are rare. They had to be shed back to Kinshasa 1,700 kilometers by air from the from the Buna airport in order to detect the the virus. It is a different virus. Um it is less fatal as it looks like. So the now the case fatality is only if one could say it that way um confirmed 10% but we suspect it to be around 25% which is different from the 30 to 50% that we have seen in the obelisadia but it's very early it's very early in the response we missed crucial weeks because of that delay it's a very different area a very dangerous area with people on the move uh rebel fractions fighting each other over control um many different countries um restricted areas to go to. So it's a it's a very different and very dangerous scenario.

[00:04:56]>> So as you say there are many challenges there in combating the spread of this strain of Ebola. Uh and as I pointed out there is no vaccine. So what are the resources that responders have to slow down the spread of the virus?

[00:05:12]>> Exactly. Okay. So the the lacking vaccine is something researchers are working on it but even if in two three months the development of a vaccine is at a point where a candidate vaccine can then go into trials you can see this taking time 6 months or something. So this is not something we can work with right now. Um also treatment is uh an effective treatment is lacking so far.

[00:05:36]So supportive care to the patients is something which is important and can be given. This is why we need to set up treatment centers um where people can go when there are suspected cases or when they're confirmed cases um where they can be treated where everybody is protected the the the medical staff as well as families when they come visit um and that is important. So one of the biggest tools of course we have is working with the communities because people need to understand that burials for example cannot be in the same way as they used to do it. If you touch a dead body um which is kind of in a in a ritual way the whole family comes together touches the body before they they bury him in the ground that is of course in a highly contact contagious um virus a very dangerous thing to do.

[00:06:24]Medical staff have to be retrained to to proper use of equipment to protective equipment, but also the protective equipment has to reach these remote areas. Again, 1,700 kilometers by air, nearly 3,000 by road. That is a vast distance and it takes a lot of effort, logistical effort, support, financial support uh to set this all up to get medical equipment there. We have been shipping tons and tons of equipment already. Um, other agencies do as well with together with the with the NGO partners on the ground. All this is important. Everything coming together and we're racing behind the virus right now.

[00:07:05]>> Now, in the absence of a vaccine, uh, you know, responders have to depend on quick detection as you point out as well as isolation. What else can the WHO do?

[00:07:19]>> Yeah. important to get cases early. So the communities need need to be involved. Uh medical staff need to be involved. The the cynic the the centers the traditional healers need to be involved. Religious communities need to be involved. The whole wider community, the border authorities need to be involved in order to detect cases as early as possible. That starts most likely with a fever. It's part of the viral hemorrhagic fever. That means fever is one of the early symptoms to detect it. Early detection, early reporting means early treatment and not maybe a bad outcome, a negative outcome, a fatal outcome. So all this needs to come together, but it's a huge effort in a in an area where distrust against anybody is high.

[00:08:05]>> Now I would imagine that another big challenge is funding to combat these kinds of outbreaks. Uh the United States has cut funding to the WHO as well as to Congo uh Democratic Republic of Congo.

[00:08:17]In this instance, uh the Spanish prime minister actually pointed to that and was very critical of those cuts in funding. Let's listen to what he had to say.

[00:08:29]In just a few months, the same country that has cut some $18 billion from global health and develop aid has spent over $29 billion on a war whose humanitarian and geopolitical consequences will also be devastating.

[00:08:44]There's a pandemic that no one wants to stop and that's the pandemic of selfishness. That's the pandemic that's truly affecting our societies and that one is contagious. So Christian uh how are these cuts affecting uh your ability to uh not just fight this current outbreak but also future pandemics?

[00:09:04]>> We do see on the ground that material is missing that uh clinics have been closed that the stocks of protective equipment or treatments of medicines are not as high as they used to be or are simply empty. That is there but it's too early for us to say what the exact effect and cause is. So it's too not easy for us to point the finger at one exact source source or reason for that. But the funding cuts uh the global funding cuts which is not only the US. So many countries have cut their funding um has an impact has an impact on the communities has an impact on the health clinics. Now smaller places had to be closed. People have to walk m much more distance to get to a a site. um simple diseases in these areas like malaria can remain undetected or untreated. So all this plays together as I said in the beginning the the the the tests for bunjibujo strain were not available in the area that took time and transporting this back to Shinshasa takes time because it needs to be in specific containers and so on so forth. Much of this was was missing or not available which used to be there before. What's the exact source of that? Difficult to say.

[00:10:22]>> Christian Liner, thanks for the update.

[00:10:24]Thanks for being with us.

[00:10:26]>> Thank you.

[00:10:27]>> Medical personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confronted 17 Ebola outbreaks in the past 50 years, but this time they say it's different.

[00:10:37]To discuss the situation on the ground, we welcome Dr. Mariam Sila. She is deputy representative of UNICEF in the Democratic Republic of Congo and joins us now from Kinshasa. Dr. Sila, thanks for being with us.

[00:10:51]>> Thank you for having me.

[00:10:52]>> I want to start uh with a social media post uh from the director general of the WHO. It puts into perspective the kinds of challenges that you face there. Uh he said, "We are facing an extremely serious and complex Ebola outbreak in the DRC. it will likely get worse before it gets better. And then he goes on to describe the challenges. He says, "We have contained every previous Ebola outbreak and we will contain this one too." I guess the question is how quickly can it be contained and how great is the risk that more people will die before that can be done? What is your assessment?

[00:11:30]>> Thank you very much for the question.

[00:11:32]UNICEF is deeply concerned about the recent Ebon outbreak even the DRC like the WHO uh DG said um this one because there is no treatment there is no vaccine and it has spread in uh in major population centers like uh uh Buna GMA so it's and in an area where you have population movement along the mining cor corridors This also is complicated by the fact that there is displacement, insecurity.

[00:12:06]Uh so all this combined make us a bit wor worried about the outbreak. However, if there is one country in the world that has experience in dealing with Ebola is the DRC. This is the 17 epid outbreak they are facing. You have experience in dealing with it. If we put every public health measure in place, we will be able to contain it. That will require uh organization coordination uh under the leadership of the government uh and with all the all partners supporting the government strategy to put in place. We are also concerned because children are affected either by the by the virus itself or by the fact that their more parents might be affected. So the sooner we get this outbreak under control, the better it will be for the children in the DRC and for the entire country.

[00:13:04]>> Could you give us a sense of what it's like in these areas that you talk about?

[00:13:08]Uh there are some population centers like GMA that you mentioned, but what kinds of resources are there available to responders and healthcare workers?

[00:13:20]We as UNICE we government has developed its uh outbreak response plan. It has seven pillars for UNICEF. We are going to support risk communication and community engagement. Very important to get the community behind uh uh the response plan. Once you get the community trust, they trust the health system, they trust the measuring and they adopt them will be able to contain and avoid the spread of the uh uh virus in the community.

[00:13:49]uh infection prevention control within health facilities. UNICEF is supported that as well. We've provided so far 50 tons uh of m supplies and material to health facilities. This includes um u PPE pro protection material for health health workers as well as uh soap uh uh chloral to avoid infections within uh health facilities. So there are measures public health measure that are well known if we applied them in terms of uh treatment uh symptomatic treatment it's possible to contra contain it community engagement commun risk and communication risk communication um infection prevention control the uh and the material that is needed government has provided the support of it partners to diagnose the the the the infections laboratories and all the the suppl supplies and material that are needed to know who is infected. Contact tracing will be key in controlling. We need to know who is sick and who is people who who is positive and the families member and friend that have been in contact with so that we can contact them and follow through to make sure that we are um uh we know who was it the contact and get them and monitor them for the next 21 days. So for us and that will also include children in the community that are affected or those parent who are affected have lost their parent. We provide psychosocial support to them. We have also we we are planning to put in place crash in the train in the treatment center so that children are and their careers are well taken care of.

[00:15:32]Now more than 200 people have uh already died from this current outbreak and we've got something like 900 people who are infected. Uh now with people on the move um I mean how difficult is it to contain it? Do you feel that uh health workers are getting a grip on trying to confine it to a certain part of the country?

[00:15:54]As I mentioned uh community engagement and risk communication, contact tracing are key tools that we are all hands on desk. UNICEF has provided the motorbike to to the to the uh uh to the province of it to facilitate that that work so that we know where people are. We trace them. this in collaboration with who Africa CDC I think everybody is aware that we need to be ahead of the epidemic. So contact tracing who is community engagement risk communication so that we identify uh the the the we identify those who have been in contact we identify the contact and make sure we we monitor them. So it's feasible this country as I mentioned has managed 17 uh 17 epidemics of Ebola. We have the experience the tools the and and what is required now is to to to to get behind like we've doing that the the government support the government all partners so that we can control the the outbreaks.

[00:17:04]Earlier we were talking with the spokesperson for the WH who told us that one of the problems, one of the early problems was the fact that this particular outbreak uh was not detected uh early enough. Uh how much of a setback was that?

[00:17:20]>> It was not detected because uh we the type of virus we had this time is different for the the Zer. So that took a little bit of time but once now that this is it was determined that it's indeed in fact Ebola it's the Ebola outbreak and we know the type of virus that is I think the the the the machine and all the tools are put being put in place so that we can respond effectively to the outbreak.

[00:17:50]>> How uh are you being affected by funding cuts? I mean, if we look at funding from the United States, for instance, uh in 2024 it was $1.4 billion. That has now dropped to $21 million for this year. That must be having a huge impact on your work.

[00:18:08]>> Uh this outbreak is unfolding in an already underfunded humanitarian context. Right. The DRC humanitarian appeal is currently at only 21% funded, a gap of 263 million. So um we are grateful, UNICEF is grateful to all our donors for their ongoing support to the Ebola response including the United State Department. So, UNICEF Ebola response programming has been supported by the US government throughout the past few years and the US was once again one of the first to respond with additional resources for this newest outbreak. So, we are grateful to all our donors for their ongoing support.

[00:18:52]>> Dr. Silla, thanks so much.

[00:18:54]The World Health Organization considers Ebola a low risk at the global level.

[00:18:59]But with more and more people traveling in an increasingly interconnected world, what are the odds of the disease spreading? To talk about that and more, we're joined now by Dr. Kate Teleno. She is an expert on health workforce challenges and is founder and CEO of Corvis Health. Kate, good to see you.

[00:19:18]>> Pleasure to be here.

[00:19:19]Well, talking about uh big events and people traveling across the globe, we're just two weeks away from one of the biggest events in the world, and that is the World Cup, which will be hosted jointly by the United States, by Mexico, and by Canada as well, and expected to be thousands of people traveling from outside these three countries to attend the event. Now, the United States is imposing a travel ban on non-Americans who've been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is where the Ebola outbreak has occurred, also from Uganda and South Sudan. Um, I mean, what are the risks that a big event like this poses and do you believe that there are sufficient measures in place right now?

[00:20:02]>> Well, first of all, we have to recognize that these mass gatherings are always a risk. In fact, the World Health Organization has a a form of public health called mass gathering medicine.

[00:20:12]And so when we get millions of people together, you know, coming from hundreds of different countries, you always need to have heightened public health measures. And so now we have one of these mass gatherings with one of the fastest growing EB growing Ebola outbreaks that we've had. So we do need to have extra measures. I think the banning of people from the three countries is is probably unnecessary. I think instead you could have done measures like recording their temperature, requiring to know where they're staying, you know, following up with them. This of course costs money.

[00:20:45]That might be some of the the hesitation. So I I do think that some of these measures are unnecessary. Uh but we understand why they're being done. uh certainly the the teams from these countries are going to be allowed to participate and so that's a good thing especially because these countries could use a morale boost uh with the pandemic that's going on right now >> right you know as we heard earlier from the WH spokesperson um it's a big challenge trying to contain the Ebola outbreak because it wasn't detected early enough so how would you rate the risk of this virus spreading >> well it's certainly going to spread more in DRC See it it spread quite quickly from one state to three. Uh it's continuing to spread to spread. It's now in states that have the ongoing conflict. In fact, the WHO secretary general has has called for peace, has called for a ceasefire so they can get health workers in, get anthropologists in to work with these communities. I I think things probably are going to be controlled in Uganda. Uganda has quite a robust health system and and it really has been confined to the health workers and and a few people from DRC who who came in sick. So I'm not so concerned about uh Uganda. We're keeping our eye on South Sudan which also has a border with uh DRC and particularly in that northeast area. Uh the South Sudan's health system is extremely weak and so if an outbreak were to occur there uh it it would be quite a problem. But that the biggest area of concern is DRC because of the ongoing conflict, the movement of people. You have mining there, a lot of it illegal. Uh people are moving back and forth across borders. Uh you know, right now we have what 900 suspected cases, over 220 suspected deaths. I think we're going to see a lot more than that in DRC before this is finished.

[00:22:35]>> Right. It is in this part of Central Africa right now, but it is a global challenge which requires a global response. The former New Zealand prime minister, who is also a pandemic expert, Helen Clark, uh she spoke about how important it is for countries to work together to combat the spread of the outbreak. Let's listen to her.

[00:22:57]>> Global solidarity remains extremely important. We're talking global public goods and Ebola cases turned up in the United States. Hent virus has popped up in places where people went from the ship. We're in this together.

[00:23:11]>> And then of course we have politics getting involved in this. I mean according to a report on CNN, the United States has banned leading researchers on infectious diseases to speak directly with the World Health Organization. Uh these rules are part of a broader Trump administration uh measure to retreat from global health uh initiatives. Uh but of course diseases don't respect uh borders as we are fully aware. I mean, how much of a setback is this decision by the White House?

[00:23:42]>> This is a time for communication and for increased communication. And even if you look at the America first agenda, there are Americans in DRC. There are American business interests in DRC. And so banning American scientists and public health experts from communicating with with WHO or others is just going to hurt American interests in the long run. And also in many of theus that the US has been negotiating with African countries, one of the things they've been asking for is data, you know, tissue, uh, presumably to, uh, you know, help the, uh, biomedical industry in the US expand. And, and so this type of lack of communication isn't going to help that.

[00:24:25]It's not going to serve us business well. It's not going to serve Americans well in general. So I I hope that soon they will uh you know release these bans uh and allow American uh scientists and public health experts to communicate.

[00:24:40]And I guess one of the other big challenges for people like yourself uh is the spread of misinformation and disinformation. We saw that during the co 19 outbreak and we live in the age of uh the internet. information travels very very quickly and now of course we have uh AI uh which makes it far easier for people to push these kinds of false narratives. I mean there are some rightwing groups that are saying that the outbreak that we are seeing right now of the hivirus on the one hand on Ebola on the other is a man-made crisis and it was created to disrupt the midterm elections here in the uh uh United States or to push for new vaccines to be created. I mean, what are you seeing and how how dangerous are these kinds of conspiracy theories uh that we're hearing about?

[00:25:29]>> They're quite dangerous. As far back as 10 years ago, the World Health Organization recognized misinformation, disinformation as a leading global health threat. And we're seeing this type of misinformation on all different levels. We're seeing it on the ground in DRC with communities not trusting health workers, actually, you burning down a health facility. uh you know the the the lack of trust of their own government of course l lack of trust of of rebels and and military groups. So we're seeing it there. We're also seeing it at the global level and of course in US and as you pointed out with AI you can now make any image you want. You can now make any film you know any moving image that you want. Uh but you know to allay people's fears you know these are real outbreaks.

[00:26:16]you know people who are on one side are going to go with with their side and people who are on the other side are going to double down on their side. So I really don't see something like this uh you know changing elections and it reinforces the fact that in US and everywhere we really need to build up stronger community health worker systems. Every community needs to have trusted health workers who they've grown up with who know their culture know their language and and who they trust.

[00:26:42]And that will help take care of a lot of this disinformation.

[00:26:46]>> And what kind of a toll uh are these outbreaks taking on health care workers?

[00:26:51]I mean, we did see that in the Ebola outbreak uh some of the earliest victims, people who died were nurses uh who became infected while caring for uh patients. I mean, this is a region that is remote. It faces a serious shortage of clinicians. Uh so, what kind of impact does that have?

[00:27:10]Yeah, it's quite a devastating impact.

[00:27:12]The first recognized case in DRC was in fact a nurse. The same with the first recognized case in Uganda in this outbreak. And you have to keep in mind that many of these health workers, you know, at their local salaries, they're making less than $25 a day. Often they're not being paid on a regular basis. Months can go by before they're paid their wages. And also, they're working in incredibly difficult conditions. you know, they're wearing those complete biohazard suits in, you know, often 90% humidity, you know, 90 degrees or more, no air conditioning.

[00:27:44]It's incredibly uncomfortable. They're also, needless to say, frightened for their lives. Um, they're frightened for their families. We haven't seen it yet in this outbreak, but in the past, we've seen health workers, you know, attacked, kicked out of their homes, families kicked out of their homes because neighbors and communities were concerned that the health workers would bring Ebola, you know, into the community. and and especially in a country like like DRC, uh they don't have a strong capacity to train more health workers or to employ them. And so that's something that that needs to be strengthened. You know, one of my hopes for for this particular outbreak is that as they respond to the the hot outbreak, they will also work to increase sustainability, you know, to increase capacity in a sustainable way. You know, improving uh the government's ability to employ and pay health workers, including improving health workers ability to start up their own private practices in rural areas, expanding health professional schools so they can train more.

[00:28:44]>> Dr. Kate Teno, these are tough times ahead. Thanks so much for your insights.

[00:28:49]>> Thank you.

[00:28:51]>> And we need to leave it there. That's it for this edition of The Heat. I'm Arnand Naidu in Washington.