00:00Let me bring you the latest that I know about the MV Hondias, the expedition cruise ship which is
00:06currently in the Atlantic. She is the location sadly for an outbreak of Hanta virus, a very
00:14nasty disease which originates in rats. It can, says the World Health Organization, be passed on
00:22by human to human contact but generally only if people have been in very close proximity,
00:28for example sharing a cabin on a cruise ship. The vessel was on a repositioning voyage from the
00:37Antarctic season through to the Arctic and this particular sailing which has almost 150 passengers
00:46on board involved going from Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina across the South Atlantic calling
00:54in various islands including St Helena and also Cape Verde. And it's at Pryor, the capital of Cape
01:03Verde, where the vessel was told sorry you cannot let your passengers off here. Health officials said
01:11they will hopefully be able to help with the evacuation of two crew members, one British, one
01:18Dutch to the Netherlands to be treated and also the repatriation of the partner of a German person
01:27who was on board the ship and very sadly died on board on the 2nd of May. Of course we
01:34have seen
01:34stories about viruses spreading on cruise ships before, not least during the Covid pandemic when
01:43in the early stages ships were sometimes sailing for weeks trying to find a port where they could be
01:50dropped off. In this particular case Cape Verde has said no you cannot disembark your passengers here
01:58apart from the medevac situation and you're going to have to sail at least 900 miles northeast to the
02:06Canary Islands. Of course any location is able to specify its own health requirements however hantavirus
02:16is nothing like the viruses that spread so easily on cruise ships including Covid but also norovirus which
02:26is a nasty gastric infection. Any advice on this? Well frankly it's an extremely unfortunate case
02:34that I have not covered before in particular with hantavirus and if you are taking a cruise well of course
02:43it does
02:45highlight the fact that you've got no control over whether you might actually be delayed getting off the ship.
02:52Most people though I hope will have very happy cruises this summer and thoughts with the loved ones of the
03:00victims of
03:01hantavirus and the passengers who are still waiting to be allowed off a ship that must be a really really
03:09difficult place to be.
Comments