00:00Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
00:03Thank you for joining us for this briefing on the hantavirus situation.
00:09Let me begin by outlining what has happened, what we know, what we don't know and what WHO has done.
00:18Last Saturday, the United Kingdom notified WHO under the international health regulations of a cluster of passengers with severe respiratory
00:28illness
00:28on a Dutch-flagged cruise ship, the MV Hondius, which had traveled from Argentina to Capo Verde.
00:38So far, eight cases have been reported, including three deaths.
00:45Five of the eight cases have been confirmed as hantavirus, and the other three are suspected.
00:53Antiviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause severe disease in humans.
01:02People are usually infected through contact with infected rodents or their urine droppings or saliva.
01:10The species of antivirus involved in this case is the Andes virus, which is found in Latin America
01:18and is the only species known to be capable of limited transmission between humans.
01:25In previous outbreaks of Andes virus, transmission between people has been associated with close and prolonged contact,
01:34particularly among household members, intimate partners, and people providing medical care.
01:43That appears to be the case in the current situation.
01:48The first case was in a man who developed symptoms on the 6th of April and died on the ship
01:56on the 11th of April.
02:00No samples were taken, and because his symptoms were similar to those of other respiratory diseases,
02:09hantavirus was not suspected.
02:13The man's wife went ashore when the ship docked at the island of St. Helena and was also symptomatic.
02:22She deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg on the 25th of April and died the next day.
02:33Samples were taken, which were tested at South Africa's National Institute of Communicable Disease,
02:39and confirmed as hantavirus.
02:43The third death was of a woman on the ship who developed symptoms on the 28th of April and died
02:52on the 2nd of May.
02:54Yes, thank you.
02:55So I believe the second question was related to a potential suspect case.
02:59So as the DG said in his remarks, we're getting reports of suspect cases or potential suspect cases.
03:06These are alerts, as we call them.
03:08Some of them have had reported links to the ship or passengers on the ship.
03:12All of those will be followed up with the relevant authorities in each country.
03:16The countries themselves, whether it's through the ministries or through the agencies in the countries,
03:21are actually assessing each person case by case, looking at what type of exposure did they have,
03:26are they developing any symptoms, if anyone is developing symptoms to be isolated immediately,
03:32testing to take place, and providing the appropriate support.
03:35This is actually how the case in Switzerland was identified,
03:38following the notification from the ship's operators, which we're very grateful for.
03:43This individual presented to health care, wasn't feeling well, was immediately isolated, was tested.
03:48This is actually public health actions in the works.
03:52And I did just want to add, on the global solidarity side of things,
03:56you know, in all of the efforts that we're doing right now,
03:59including the ship sailing to the Canary Islands and to support the Spanish authorities,
04:03we've pulled together all of the global experts related to hantaviruses,
04:07in particular the Andes virus, and that global solidarity also falls into place on the technical side of things as
04:14well,
04:14coming in together saying, what do we know, what have we learned from past outbreaks,
04:18what's going on in the current situation, and essentially, how can we help?
04:22And that type of technical solidarity is really helpful.
04:24Some of the diagnostic kits and the reagents that we are sending are also going to Spain,
04:30so that will support in some of the further investigations that need to take place.
04:35So overall, we're very grateful for all of those who've come together from the technical side as well to support
04:41this event.
04:42So the R&D blueprint for epidemics, which was established by WHO following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa,
04:50in 2017, we outlined priority pathogens.
04:53And from there, these are priority pathogens that have an epidemic or pandemic risk that didn't have medical countermeasures.
04:59And a lot of work has happened over the last almost 10 years related to the development of better diagnostics,
05:06better therapeutics, better vaccines for pathogens that we know have a risk.
05:12Recently, the R&D blueprint has moved to more of a pathogen family approach,
05:15so that we take a more holistic view of how research is done to advance, you know,
05:22what could be done ahead of time, ahead of that next outbreak, ahead of that next pandemic.
05:26We benefited from that for COVID, for COVID, for the work that was done on SARS and on MERS and
05:31on RNA technology.
05:33And this is what we want to continue to see.
05:35So that investment in research, that investment in innovation,
05:39the investment in the coordination of people who are working on this.
05:43We're very grateful for that from a technical point of view, the work of CEPI,
05:46the work of many others who are advancing this type of work.
05:50But that needs a regular attention, regular investment, and also follow-up.
05:56So what are we learning?
05:57What actually needs to be done?
05:58So the R&D blueprint is working very hard on many different types of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential.
06:05And as Anais has said, this is one in a family of viruses where this approach is being taken.
06:11So those of you who are out there who are doing research in this area, thank you very much.
06:15Those of you who are out there who are funding research in the area,
06:19please continue to do so because it is urgently needed because we are always preparing for the next outbreak,
06:26the next epidemic.
06:27And I want to reiterate again, this is not the start of an epidemic.
06:31This is not the start of a pandemic.
06:32But it is a good opportunity to say that investments in pathogens like this are critical
06:37because therapeutics, diagnostics, vaccines save lives.
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