What experts are saying about the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak | Nine.com.au

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]But the Andes virus can have some human-to-human transmission. So for our point of view, from a public health perspective, this is what we are assuming and we're trying to take the maximum level of precautions, balancing risk. And please let me just add that the risk to the general public is low.

[00:00:15]And I think we need to contextualize this cuz there's a lot of attention and it's good that we're seeing attention, but we do want to put in context to what we mean for for everyone saying, "Oh my gosh, is this the next one?" I think people see me sometimes and they think I, you know, it's like the next COVID and I I really I really just want to assure people this is something that's quite different. This is not the next COVID, um but it is a serious infectious disease. You know, it's an infectious disease that if people get infected, and infections are uncommon, um they can die. Um and so again, people hearing this that are on the ship are, you know, very rightly so, scared. Um and the general public might be scared as well.

[00:00:51]So early information, accurate information is critical, knowing what your actual exposure might be, and most people will never be exposed to this. At the present time, we have eight suspected cases, um of which three have died, three have been confirmed, and these cases are all associated with the ship.

[00:01:10]Um we have one patient that is currently in ICU in South Africa, who's actually doing better.

[00:01:15]We have three people that have today been medically evacuated from the ship and are on their way to the Netherlands.

[00:01:22]Um and we have one recent case that has been uh identified here in Switzerland associated with the ship, but getting off the ship in St. Helena.

[00:01:31]And the last case is a suspected case.

[00:01:33]Is an older woman who unfortunately passed away on board. So there's been sequencing done on two patients. So we only have confirmation, lab confirmation, from three of the eight individuals. So there are ongoing lab investigations.

[00:01:46]Only two have had sequencing done. This is really enough for us at the moment to, you know, understand that it's the Andes virus. I have to say that since the beginning we've been assuming that it it is the Andes virus, just given the path of the ship, given that it started in Argentina and that it's been moving up the coast of Africa in the Atlantic.

[00:02:05]So, it was an assumption that we had just based on and as you know, hantaviruses are common in rodents and people can get infected with this, but there are many different types of hantaviruses. So, that's why the sequencing is important. And because this is Andes, we know typically most people are infected through contact with rodents or their saliva or droppings, but this one particular virus has been associated with some limited human-to-human transmission among close contacts and past outbreaks. That's important for us to set forth like the right public health measures and just to be very precautious with all of the people who are involved. For example, in this case, the husband and the wife. Our working hypothesis is that they were infected potentially before they got on board.

[00:02:46]All of this needs to be fully investigated. We don't have confirmation on this, but our working hypothesis is that and it's possible one of them was infected and infected the other. They could have both been infected through contact with rodents, but we do know on board that there has been some close contact between individuals where we believe the virus was transmitted. So, when we say close contact, we mean very close physical contact, whether it's sharing a bunk room or sharing a cabin, providing medical care, for example. Very, very different than COVID and very different than influenza. So, what we know so far is that there is this cruise ship of more than 150 passengers and some people are starting to develop symptoms uh pulmonary symptoms uh deteriorating very rapidly and unfortunately some people passed away and um after analysis and investigation, we found out that these people we were confirmed that these people contracted a virus called hantavirus.

[00:03:52]In particular, now we know that's a species of Hantavirus called Andes virus.

[00:03:58]And this virus is found in South America.

[00:04:01]Mainly in Chile and Argentina. We think the first case of Hantavirus might happen during the Korean War. And that's where the name comes from, Hantan. So there is a river in Korea that's called Hantan River.

[00:04:14]And in the late 70s the Hantavirus Hantavirus virus have been isolated and then it has been traced back that probably caused an outbreak among soldiers in the region during the war.

[00:04:27]Um late later in the 90s the viruses Hantaviruses have been found also in in the new world.

[00:04:36]So in the Americas.

[00:04:38]And we know Andes it has been found in late 90s in South America. And we know of another virus that's usually associated with North American cases. Beside the diversity in geography, we also know that the viruses new world Hantaviruses cause a disease that we are seeing now called pulmonary syndromes.

[00:04:59]So the main target organ are the lungs and it is believed also the heart to a lower extent. And the fatality rate is is around 40% which is why people are so scared probably.

[00:05:13]And for old world Hantaviruses though, the pathology is quite different. So they mainly affect kidneys.

[00:05:21]And the fatality rate is much lower. It is between 1 to 15%.

[00:05:27]So it's same viral family, different virus species that cause different type of diseases depending on the species and where you contract it. So we are particularly worried about Andes because as you as people may know now, this virus is mainly transmit from rodents to human. And when I say rodents to human is basically you can imagine a scenario where there are rodents excreta, the people might come into contact, and by moving or cleaning this excreta, the viral particles that are in in this secretion get are becomes aerosol and then can be inhaled. The most important thing is not to create panic.

[00:06:12]So, transmit as I said, this virus is not new.

[00:06:17]And the fact that people are hearing it hearing about it or them for the first time means the transmission is very low.

[00:06:25]It doesn't happen often.

[00:06:27]And so, I would suggest the public not be be informed, get information from the right media.

[00:06:39]And not to draw to any conclusion like cancel all the holidays, start stockpiling or any goods. This is this is not where we are now.