00:00Simon, welcome. South African authorities say they've confirmed this is the human-to-human infection variant.
00:07What do we know about this virus?
00:10Well, we know that that is actually quite rare.
00:13I mean, we know still that it probably came initially from rodent sources,
00:19so someone or perhaps more than one person has had contact with that.
00:24I've been trying to find out this afternoon where this ship has been recently,
00:27but we've been unable to do that.
00:30So somebody or some people have picked it up,
00:32and there is the possibility that there has been transfer between people to people in the close confines of this
00:39ship.
00:41The world in Europe, those who have children, are about to go on holiday.
00:46How worried should we be?
00:49Well, this is an ever-present risk, and is present today as it was last year, and it was 10
00:54years ago.
00:55So the risk has not changed.
00:57This has just come to people's attention because it's happened where it's happened, to whom it has happened.
01:05So the risk is not, I don't think, any higher.
01:07There is no evidence.
01:08We have no evidence to suggest that the risk today, globally, is any more severe than it has been in
01:14the past.
01:16I wonder whether or not you think the authorities have been right to pause and think about stopping this vessel
01:23birthing.
01:23You can understand their concern, can't you?
01:26Oh, yes.
01:27I mean, it depends on the status of people who are infected, perhaps not seriously unwell.
01:35They need to be stopped from becoming seriously unwell, because, of course, medical facilities on a cruise ship,
01:41indeed a fairly small cruise ship as it is, will not be that comprehensive.
01:48So we need to think about that, but, of course, local populations will be nervous,
01:52because if they don't have a hantavirus problem in their area,
01:56then they won't want people potentially bringing one and transmitting it.
02:01Perhaps their concerns wouldn't be so great if it wasn't the one that could transmit from person to person.
02:07So what are the prospects, then, for the passengers and the crew on board this ship?
02:13Well, they'll have to sit tight until somebody will let them off, I mean, or come round and test them
02:20all.
02:20I don't know how long it takes for a test to be done,
02:24let alone how long it takes for a positive sample to be taken from somebody.
02:31There will be an incubation period between the infection and a positive test result,
02:36and you've got to do the test itself.
02:37So that adds a level of complexity.
02:40We really don't have any answers on that on the trade.
02:43Are you able, then, I wonder, to give any assurance to people who might be worried
02:48in those directly affected communities, the port,
02:52and now the community in Switzerland, where another passenger has arrived?
02:58Well, the port, people haven't got off the ship, certainly not in any great number.
03:04The infected passenger has been transferred back to Switzerland under, I'm quite sure,
03:12the most stringent and effective of conditions.
03:15I think any risk, probably not zero, but it's very, very low, almost zero, I would say.
03:22Simon, good to talk to you.
03:23Simon Clarke, the Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading.
03:28Simon Clarke, the Associate Professor in Ontario of Research and Measure時 Shake.
03:28Simon Clarke, the Associate Professor in curdition.
03:28Simon Clarke, the Associate Professor in bipartisan athletics.
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