00:02there's a new twist this morning in the cruise ship virus outbreak spain says it will take the
00:08ship but officials in the canary islands are now pushing back nearly 150 passengers and crew
00:14including 17 americans remain on that ship the mv hondias after a hantavirus cluster killed three
00:21people and sickened others health officials have identified seven cases so far two confirmed and
00:27five suspected including one person still in critical condition spain's central government
00:33says the ship can head to the canary islands for treatment and a full investigation but the
00:38region's president is opposing that plan saying there's not enough information to guarantee public
00:44safety the world health organization says some limited human to human spread may have happened
00:49but emphasizes the risk to the broader public is low three people are now being medically evacuated
00:56and once that's complete the ship is expected to sail to the canary islands where spanish authorities
01:02will take over conduct a full investigation and begin disinfecting the vessel officials believe
01:07the virus may have originated during excursions earlier in the trip possibly through contact with
01:14infected rodents but the exact source is still under investigation the cruise began in argentina in
01:20march and has been at sea for about seven weeks earlier i spoke with public health expert professor
01:26lawrence gawson he's an internationally recognized scholar at georgetown university and johns hopkins
01:32university and directs the world health organization center on global health law i asked him how passengers
01:38likely contracted hantavirus the more likely possibility is that it's a rodent born disease mice or rat
01:51droppings urine sometimes it aerosolizes in the air and you can breathe it in and there are two forms of
02:00hantavirus disease um both very very serious and potentially lethal one is a pulmonary form that um
02:10basically affects your you know breathing and your lungs and the other one is a hemorrhagic fever
02:17um which uh primarily affects your kidneys um and both of them uh are uh very dangerous and and unless
02:27you get very intensive care can lead to death because there is no known treatment um for either form of
02:35the
02:36disease is there a risk for those 140 or so passengers who are still on board uh because they're in
02:44close
02:44quarters uh with people who might be infected with the hantavirus well they're they're a considerable risk
02:51but not for that reason um it's very unlikely that being in close quarters that you'll contract the
03:00virus from another person um what's much more likely is is that um many of them have already um
03:09um have been exposed to um these contaminated rat or mice droppings um and they're going to get very
03:18very very sick and when they before they get very sick they're going to need to get strong supportive
03:25care and then ultimately intensive care and the ship um medics don't have the capacity to do that
03:35care
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