00:06It is a virus. Its main host is in rodents, rats and mice. It's actually a family of viruses.
00:16And I think about half a dozen or so have been associated with human infections.
00:22Each of those viruses tend to be associated with different rodents. So some one I think is
00:27associated with the brown rats and others are associated with different mice species.
00:34They you you acquire the infection typically from breathing in aerosols that are contaminated with rat urine and feces or
00:47rodent urine and feces.
00:48And so one of the. Riskiest things is cleaning out rats nests from your house.
00:59Yeah, that's that's a well known risk.
01:03It's it depending on which type of the virus infects you, you it generally causes either a pulmonary syndrome, a
01:14chest infection and the mortality rate from that's quite high up to about 30 percent, give or take.
01:24And. A renal hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which mortality rates a bit lower, maybe about 10 percent.
01:33It doesn't appear to spread person to person to person.
01:39There have been some suggestions that it might, but.
01:43Other researchers have cast doubt on that evidence, so it's it's not clear if if person person spread does happen,
01:54it's probably quite uncommon.
01:58There's no specific treatment, it's supportive, so if you've got renal failure, it's ensuring you have dialysis and and if
02:06you've got pulmonary disease, it's ensuring that you've got your airways protected and you've got artificial breathing and that sort
02:13of thing.
02:21And absolutely, the World Health Organization has particular responsibilities for cruises between member states, you know, so it produces guidelines
02:34and recommendations.
02:35And I think it has some I can't remember the exact details now, but it has some statutory responsibilities that
02:45in these areas.
02:46So it is. And it's actually the WHO has actually already submitted a statement, released a statement to say the
02:57fact that they're supporting the investigation on the on the cruise line.
03:02Although I don't know exactly what they mean by that, what is what the nature of that support is.
03:07But yes, they're certainly aware and are and and responding to it.
03:22I think they will be looking at it. Yes.
03:24And I mean, to be honest, I, I can't remember hearing about an outbreak of Hantavirus on a cruise ship
03:32before.
03:36It is a worldwide infection.
03:40It's it.
03:43You can pick the infection up in this country.
03:46There have been infections acquired in the UK, but they're pretty uncommon.
03:54Estimates are about there's about one hundred and fifty thousand infections globally annually from Hantavirus.
04:04So so it's not an incredibly rare.
04:06It's an uncommon infection, but it's not an incredibly rare disease.
04:09And they.
04:16Whether cruise liners are well known for being associated with outbreaks of infectious disease,
04:23but particularly primarily person to person disease.
04:27So, you know, norovirus influenza and covid were all well described outbreaks associated with cruise liners.
04:35And often with a cruise liners, you tend to have a predominantly elderly population who may be more at risk
04:43of severe disease.
04:45You have.
04:47People who may well have pre-existing medical conditions as well,
04:52so that when they do get sick, they can become more ill and and and you can get more severe,
04:59you know, and more, more higher death rates in that sort of population because of their age and medical vulnerability.
05:16Yeah, it doesn't have to be physical contact because this spreads through the air.
05:21So you have, as I said, the typical one is is clearing out areas where rats have been and and
05:28you spend the dried feces and urine into the air,
05:32breathe it in and that's how you get the infection.
05:37And I, at the moment, I.
05:44I haven't got any insights into how that might have happened on the ship.
05:49If that is where people got the infection and and clearly there will be people looking at that, trying to
05:58explain it and.
06:05I, at the moment, I'm not going to try to get a dead fear.
06:08And I said, I'm getting that fear.
06:10I'm getting that fear.
06:10I'm not going to take it.
06:10I'm getting that fear.
06:11I'm getting that fear.
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