Hantavirus
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What are the recent developments regarding Hantavirus on the MV Hondias?
Next, though, the World Health Organization has identified seven cases of Hantavirus, two confirmed and seven suspected, linked to a luxury cruise ship currently anchored off Cape Verde. Three people who were on board MV Hondias have died, a Dutch husband and wife, as well as a German national. The cruise operator says two crew members, one British and one Dutch, are in need of urgent medical care. while another Briton is undergoing treatment in intensive care following the suspected outbreak. The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it is aware of two Irish citizens on board and is providing consular assistance. US travel blogger Jake Rosmeran shared a tearful post on social media from on board the ship.
I am currently on board the MV Hondias, and what's happening right now is very real for all of us here. We're not just a story. We're not just headlines. We're people, people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home. There's a lot of uncertainty, and that's the hardest part.
What is Hantavirus and how is it transmitted?
All we want right now is to feel safe. to have clarity, and to get home. So if you're seeing coverage about this, just remember that there are real people behind it and that this isn't something happening somewhere far away. It's happening to us right now. I just ask for your kindness and understanding. Thank you.
That's US travel blogger Jake Rosmer and on board the MV Hondias. I'm joined by Graeme Fry, Director of the Tropical Medical Bureau and by Chris Reynolds, former Director of the Irish Coast Guard and former head of the EU Crisis Mission to Somalia. Good morning to you both. Graeme, I might start with you. Can you explain what Hantavirus is?
Okay. Good morning to you. It's a viral condition, obviously, which is more common than you might understand. I mean, many thousand cases occur within... Europe every single year. So it's just most of our case reports come in from the Americas. And fundamentally, it's one that can cause very severe consequences. But at the same time, it's rare and it's uncommon. The one change which is occurring is the thing called the Andes virus, which is part of that same family. And it is one that is person to person transmissible. In other words, you can actually breathe it, cough it, spit it from person to person. And that's where the issue actually rises in this particular case, because the vast majority of these cases are actually from contaminated rodent droppings, urine feces from the rodent, which has been swept and made into a mist and then people actually breathe it in.
But I mean, that's not likely to happen on a cruise ship at all. It's possible, but it's not at all likely. So this is probably the air version of it.
Okay, so the Andes version, so presumably that comes from South America.
Yeah, that's where it's been recognised mainly. And that's the concern, because obviously as an airborne disease, you can spread it much more easily from person to person. In a confined setting, that's much more common.
OK. Is there any way of guarding against this? I mean, you can't pop into the Tropical Medical Bureau and get vaccinated against it, can you?
No, we can't vaccinate them and we can't treat it either. I mean, we can support somebody who's sick with the condition, but we can't actually specifically treat it. Now, the main thing is you're going back to the actual mask scenario that we used over the last couple of years with regard to COVID. I mean, that's basically what we're trying to do and staying away from people with coughs and sneezes. I mean, to be honest, that's common sense anyway, where possible. And if someone's coughing and sneezing right beside you, you're always better to move away because there are loads of other respiratory diseases, too. This is just one of those.
What are the symptoms? Are those the symptoms? Coughing and sneezing could be anything, really.
Well, that's the problem. At the early stage, it is very nonspecific. So it's cough, sneeze, fever. You may get some stomach upset. And then it can go on to two different versions, one which affects the heart and the actual lungs, which is the more serious type, and the other which is a hemorrhagic fever, which sounds as though it's more severe, but actually the mortality rate is less severe.
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