Hantavirus-hit cruise ship to sail to Canary Islands — BBC News

[0:00] now the cruise ship on which three people have died of hantavirus is preparing to set sail for [0:05] the canary islands where all on board will be medically examined and cared for before being [0:10] transferred to their home countries this is the ship this is the live shot we have of the dutch [0:16] flagged mv hondias it's anchored just off cape verd and before it continue can continue its [0:22] journey two seriously ill crew members are expected to be taken off the ship and flown [0:28] to the netherlands for treatment after days of going nowhere the mv hondias appears to be heading [0:36] for a safe harbor cape verd said it didn't have the medical facilities to deal with the outbreak [0:43] so the world health organization asked spain to help the passage to the canary islands will take [0:49] three to four days the spanish health ministry said spain has a moral and legal obligation to assist [0:55] these people among whom are several spanish citizens but in a post-covid world not everyone [1:02] is comfortable that an infected ship could be on the way i'm not very happy about it not really [1:09] in favor but we have to look after them i mean i don't think it's right for them to dock here because [1:16] it's a disease that can be transmitted between humans they have to dock somewhere if there are [1:23] controls in place and transmission isn't allowed then fine they have to dock somewhere first medics [1:29] who've been on board will have to decide if two infected crew members need to be taken to shore [1:35] one is the ship's doctor passengers like kasem have been documenting the emergency on social media [1:42] what they have done so far is send their own doctors who took samples from the patients on board [1:47] but so far they have not come out with a result or a decision epidemiologists are now [1:52] scrutinizing this outbreak closely hantavirus begins like flu but can then develop into severe lung [1:59] disease with a 30 to 40 percent chance of death the incubation period can be up to eight weeks [2:06] making it harder to track one theory is that this is a strain which originated in the andes [2:12] and is transmitted by rats given recent history experts need to make sure there is no risk of an epidemic [2:20] clearly we need to know how this infection got on board the ship whether indeed it has spread person [2:28] to person and if so whether this has indication for anything in the future and and at that at the [2:37] moment we don't know the answer to those questions when the passengers are finally allowed to disembark [2:44] it's likely they will still face quarantine and more medical monitoring their long difficult journey [2:51] continues tom simons bbc news the bbc's pomza fihlani has been speaking to some of the people on board [2:59] we are getting views from passengers who tell us about how frustrated they are about the situation they [3:06] find themselves in mostly because of that line that's come out from the who that there is now confirmed [3:13] the confirmed risk of human to human infection and that's made a lot of people there nervous and [3:18] they've even told us that there's um at the who's advice they've now started observing uh social [3:25] distancing protocols wearing masks on board the vessel also making sure that they're sanitizing [3:31] saying really that they're trying to get on and keep their hopes up as much as possible because [3:37] there's days ahead of waiting before they can even get to get off the vessel itself [3:42] so for a lot of people really it's just been a difficult time of trying to make do with the [3:46] situation as it unfolds yeah so just take us through what we expect the procedure to be the [3:52] ship is eventually going to start moving again and make its way to the canary islands and what happens [3:57] then certainly what the the cruise line owners oceans expedition have told us is that one of the [4:05] things they're waiting for now is specialized aircrafts that are going to be arriving in cape [4:10] verida that will then evacuate those ill passengers they will then be taken to the netherlands where [4:15] they will receive that much needed care once that happens they will then set sail they're hoping to [4:21] either go to a grand grand canaria island or tenerife which will be about three days of sailing at that [4:28] point they're hoping to also then continue health checking protocols to make sure that no further [4:35] passengers are showing up with symptoms but also that more is done to to get clarity on the the strain [4:42] of hunter virus that has been that's attacked the passengers some passengers on that ship so it's [4:49] days really of of waiting but also then once they do arrive it's not going to be a simple matter of [4:55] getting off the ship certain health protocols need to be observed once they do arrive on land there [5:01] um