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Chapter 1: What alerts are health authorities responding to globally?
New Zealand health authorities are on alert as a global COVID-style track and trace operation gets underway. Racing to contain a deadly outbreak of hantavirus. Now sparking fears right here in the US. Health authorities are conducting testing around the world. It attacks people very quickly.
It can be fatal. This feels like deja vu. A deadly virus, contact tracing, alarming global headlines and countries on high alert.
Chapter 2: How is the hantavirus outbreak being contained?
It started with Hunter virus, now it's Ebola, which is currently spreading faster in the Democratic Republic of Congo than responders can contain it.
Suspected Ebola cases have tripled in a week, and the World Health Organization says the outbreak is outpacing response efforts. The number of suspected cases there has passed 900, and Fear, misinformation, aid cuts and conflict are all hampering efforts to stem the spread of the disease.
Humanitarian organisations and health ministers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and South Sudan will increase border monitoring, improve protection for frontline workers and expand lab capacity. Well, they've expressed concern that trade and the displacement of people due to regional conflicts could make the situation even worse.
Hi, I'm Amanda Gillies and today on The Detail, I look at both headlining viruses, Hunter virus and Ebola. What exactly are they and how do they spread? What are the symptoms, the treatments, the response? And what does it actually mean for New Zealand? Should we be worried? Are we prepared?
I think they're both very important warnings that we need to support greater health security. And the best thing we can do is support the World Health Organisation and global health law.
As a Kiwi in New Zealand, how worried should I be about catching either Hantavirus or Ebola right now? I'll have Michael Baker's full answer later in the podcast. Michael is an epidemiologist and the professor of public health at Otago University in Wellington, but is based in Boston at the moment on a Fulbright scholarship researching infectious diseases at Harvard University.
He has been closely following the outbreaks of both viruses and has just written a paper on the Hunter virus. And as we chatted, another case of it was being reported.
Another passenger who was on board a cruise ship at the centre of the Hunter virus outbreak has tested positive. The Spanish national has been in quarantine in a hospital in Madrid. 14 passengers have contracted the virus so far.
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Chapter 3: What is the current situation with the Ebola outbreak in Congo?
So talk me through it, Michael. Hunter virus, what actually is it?
So this is a zoonotic virus, and the same for Ebola viruses. They occur in animals, and they very occasionally infect people.
Rats and mice are not just pests. They can carry a dangerous virus called hantavirus. It spreads through their urine and droppings when people breathe contaminated dust.
But we are considered what's called a dead-end host. So these viruses are not evolved to infect us. We're not part of their normal life cycle. But occasionally they do that. And of course, we have no immunity to these viruses, so they can be really devastating.
Chapter 4: What challenges are complicating the response to Ebola?
The strain that is making global headlines is called Andes.
It's the only one of over 20 viruses in this big family that has this ability for human to human transmission. It's not very common. There's just a few outbreaks have been recorded, but enough to know that this is quite possible.
And the big difference in the recent outbreak was, of course, and this is very bad luck, that an infected person was on a cruise ship for several weeks with hundreds of other people. in a very enclosed environment.
Tonight, the cruise ship MV Hondias is docked off the West African nation of Cape Verde, officials revoking permission for passengers to disembark.
Three passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondias have died. One is in intensive care in a South African hospital, and three others were evacuated from the ship. And we know that cruise ships are the perfect setting for transmission of all sorts of infections, particularly airborne viruses. And this virus does have that ability to spread between people through the air.
It may well be mainly contact spread, but certainly a person who's starting to get ill can generate an aerosol and infect people around them.
Gosh, it reminds me so much of COVID. But with Hantavirus, I mean, how quickly can it spread? And also, Michael, how dangerous actually is it?
Well, the fatality risk if you get this infection is up around 30%. So it's a very dangerous infection and fortunately very uncommon. But if you are in this sort of environment, we do know it can transmit between people. And once you get the symptoms... you can deteriorate very rapidly.
And the only thing that will save you at that stage is getting to a hospital intensive care unit where they can support your breathing and other things.
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Chapter 5: What are the symptoms and transmission methods of hantavirus?
This comes as violence, supply shortages and global health funding cuts complicate response efforts.
Michael, what actually is this? It feels like it's been around forever. But for those who are thinking, what is Ebola? What is it?
So again, this is another zoonotic viral infection. It's called a spillover infection. It occurs naturally in fruit bats in Africa and will occasionally infect other primates and other animals. And so one way it gets to humans is through bush meat, could have also direct contact with bats. And then it has this ability to spread between people.
And it's quite a different disease from Hantavirus in that it causes people to deteriorate after a few days, and then they have severe bleeding. And then they become very ill. And at that stage, they become quite infectious to other people. So the people who tend to get infected are family members who are caring for them and healthcare workers.
And that's why it actually doesn't spread very widely from casual contact. It's mainly that close contact. And that's why it's quite containable with good resources. But in countries which have reduced health care resources and people are not aware of how it's transmitted, they often get infected when someone dies and they're preparing the body for burial and they wash the body.
So it's very easy to stop these outbreaks with using quite simple technology, what we call public health and social measures, just to stop that ongoing transmission. The big outbreak right now, it involves a rare strain. But this current outbreak is due to a strain called Bundy Bugio. It isn't new, it's just rare, confirmed only three times in human history, and there's no vaccine for it.
In 2007, it killed 25% of those infected. In 2012, 51%. And in 2026, 24% of patients have died so far. The Bundy Bugio strain is so rare that most labs aren't equipped to detect it.
has no approved vaccine. How much harder does that make for containment?
Yeah, well, this is the Bundibuyu strain, and it is probably the third most common Ebola-type virus. We don't have really good vaccines and antivirals for any of these viruses. And this one, because it's a bit less common, has had far less work done on developing a vaccine and antivirals.
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