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This is apppropo. Medics are working to evacuate people with symptoms of haunt virus amid a suspected outbreak on a luxury cruise ship held off West Africa. Around 150 passengers are stuck on the vessel after three people, a Dutch couple and a German national died and others fell ill. Havirus is a rodent born virus that can either mostly affect the lungs or the kidneys as Liza Herbert reports. Off the coast of Cape Verde, in the throws of a suspected hunter virus outbreak, one of some 150 passengers on board the MV Hondius issued a plea to the public.
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. The first passenger to show symptoms such as fever, headache, and abdominal pain was a 70-year-old from the Netherlands. According to the ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, he died on the 11th of April. His wife and a German national subsequently passed away. While others on board have also exhibited acute respiratory symptoms, only one case was initially confirmed to have the disease. A British man being treated in intensive care. They airlifted him to South Africa where he's
in a private hospital. He's the first one who was confirmed to have this hunter virus. The MV Hondas was on a weeksl long cruise from Argentina via Antarctica and onto islands in the South Atlantic. Specialists have begun speculating on how the Hunter virus, which is not commonly spread from human to human, made its way on board. There was likely an entry of rodents on board either in South America or South Africa that allowed for the exposure of some people and those individuals who are older with some degree of coorbidities that facilitated not only
the development of severe disease but unfortunately their deaths. The World Health Organization has assured the risk to the wider public remains low. Local authorities in the island nation refused to let the ship dock as a precaution. Well, for more about the outbreak, we're joined now by Nicholas Locker, professor of verology at the Perbrite Institute. Thanks so much for being with us on the program this evening. Professor, firstly, talk to us a little bit about this disease itself. A lot of people may not be too familiar with it. What exactly is haunt?
Good evening. Um, so it's true that this is a very rare virus that people are not familiar with. Um, to be honest, since we started to monitor cases in the late ' 90s, there are only been less than 1,000 cases of antivirus infection of humans. So, it is very rare, but it can also be very severe. Um, so it's an infection that is transmitted by rodent, typically rats or mice in urban settings. And usually humans get infected by um getting in contact with droppings uh urine or direct contact with animals. The transmission from human to human is pretty low. However, which is why the numbers are typically reduced for this type of infection. Um, in terms of the symptoms, uh, honorus infection can
basically result in two different types of symptoms. either respiratory symptoms that potentially can lead to pulmonary failure and um in certain cases the death of the infected patient or um emoragic fever and kidney failure which again can result in fatalities. Um and depending on the exact uh type of virus within that hont virus family, you will have those two different um outcomes uh severe outcomes potentially associated with the infection. And according to that report, as we saw there, the first passenger who died did so nearly a month ago. Are you surprised that we're only hearing about this now or how long would it usually take to diagnose this particular very rare illness? So, so that's a very good point. Um, so
it's actually quite difficult to diagnose because the typically the symptoms following infections are very generic. Uh, and usually illness is actually mistaken for or influenza. Um, you know, it's common fever, fatigue, headache. The more severe symptoms would normally develop perhaps uh between four to 14 days uh after the primary infection and that would then develop into those more acute symptoms that can result in the death of the infected individual. So it's not really surprising that this was not picked up. You know these are not typically disease that would be monitored and surveyed when you travel abroad to a exotic destination. And how do you think the virus may have gotten on board? Of course, just
speculation at this point, but we do know it was coming from South America. There is some indication that perhaps there may have been something on board specifically that made these passengers ill and it wasn't something that perhaps they had when they were getting on the boat. Yes. So I mean you know one of the most likely hypothesis is that some rodents um were um you know on board um uninvited guest uh on these luxury cruise and that it's perhaps through contaminated dropping on or urine. um and some of the uh the customers being in contact with these that the patients uh first um got infected. And is it likely do you think that more cases will emerge and what is the best way for the staff and the crew on that
boat to be dealing with this outbreak right now? So given the lack of diagnosis and the time it actually takes for the disease to evolve, it is possible that more cases are going to arise. Um I think you know in terms of the control measure um what is really critical at this scale at this stage is to make sure that uh the ship is you know thoroughly searched uh and cleared of any rodent. So that's part one. Second that you know patients that have these early signs of uh febate illnesses are straight away identified and monitored carefully and provided these are either you know dialysis if it's the hemorrhagic fever root or breathing support if it's more the respiratory root. Uh, and you
know, needless to say that a thorough and deep cleaning of any, you know, um, rodent droppings that can be spotted or, you know, traces of urine should be removed from the ship. And what kind of a risk does this pose for the wider population? We're being told, you know, not to be too concerned about this. So, are authorities in Capeford justified, do you think, in not allowing the ship to dock there? So I think what uh what the local authorities are uh potentially um aware of is the presence of uh contaminated rodent that could then um you know contaminate uh ondemic rodent population uh on the island. uh so you know their point of view is totally understandable but it's true that the risk for the general public remains uh extremely low uh given that
uh the transmission really only occurs from uh contaminated rodent um uh products if you will um to uh to humans and are cruise ships particularly prone to infections like this professor you know we might think of things more benign like tummy bugs, colds, flu. But do these kind of viruses spread more quickly in that kind of contained environment? So any virus that is transmitted through a direct contact route, you know, a contaminated surface um we've spread much more rapidly in an enclosed setting where the potential interactions with, you know, contaminated surface are much more likely. you know, think about 1,000 or 2,000 guests, you know, walking through um a public contain to go and
grab their food and the potential of a contaminated surface there. You just increase the probability. It's true that we are more used to norovirus outbreak famously on cru ships which comes down to exactly the same thing you know that um vicinity of peoples that can basically transmit to each other a highly contagious disease. And just finally, how long would it take for all of the passengers on board, not just those who have symptoms, to be checked by medics and repatriated home? heard from a very distressed passenger there in that report before we spoke with you. I think as soon as the health authorities can uh can access the ship and uh test uh people you know make sure that they don't carry the disease. They
should be able to be disembarked and repet repatriated sorry back home. Um you know what's important is to monitor those early signs of period illness especially in uh the more vulnerable uh portion of the population. Professor we'll have to leave it there for now. Thanks so much though for being with us on the program. That is Nicholas Lera, professor of verology at the UKbased Perbrite Institute. Thanks so much.
