Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the hantavirus outbreak that was discovered on an Atlantic cruise ship

Three people have died as a result of a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the WHO.

The outbreak was reported aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, and there's five more suspected cases under investigation.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says the World Health Organisation is working to co-ordinate matters on board the ship. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray, UK correspondence with us Elogevin. Hither Kevin if
they got on top of the virus outbreak on the
cruise ship.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
In short, No, it's extremely worrying. Three people have died
after a suspected hand to virus outbreak on a cruise ship.
I'll tell you about handa virus in a minute. But
the ship is in the Atlantic Ocean. It's traveling from
Argentina to Cape Verdi. So what we know so far
is that two passengers died aboard the vessel. A third

(00:29):
died after disembarking. It's a Dutch run cruise ship. And
of the one confirmed and five suspected cases still aboard
the ship, two symptomatic people are crew members. One of
those who's ill is a UK national age sixty nine,
in intensive care. They were taken off in Johannesburg. And

(00:53):
hantavirus is usually passed to humans from rodents via their
feces or saliva or urine, but it can course severe
respiratory illness and very rarely it's been recorded as being
transmitted between people. So that is the major worry, and
in fact it did make the headlines. You think, well,
I might have heard of this. It did make the
headlines last year because it is how Gene Hackman's wife

(01:18):
was said to have died as well. You'll remember they
were discovered last year in their home in the countryside.
And for those on board, deeply worrying and of course
their relatives. The World Health Organization says it is helping
to coordinate matters on board.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Right, So how much money does Starma want for Ukraine.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, he's hoping to join something that the European Union
has started, and in total it is a huge amount
of figure ninety billion euros, which is the best part
of one hundred and eighty billion New Zealand dollars. Now
he's not providing it alone, like heavens, but the UK
says it does intend to begin negotiations to join that

(01:59):
loan from the European Union, scheme seen as vital support
for Ukraine. So many people give that the thumbs up. However,
Secure Starmer is also going to tell a summit in
Armenia shortly about the UK's ambitions, which further signal the
government's desire for closer ties with the EU. Now there
are already talks about us getting much closer together about

(02:21):
trade and therefore regulations and various other matters that the
EU say to deal with us, this is what you
need to comply with. And that has raised huge concerns
that we're now going to basically dissolve Brexit via the
back door. There are lots of people who would like
to see it via the front door dissolved, but plenty

(02:41):
of people saying, well, hang on a minute, we had
a referendum and if you want to change that, you
should have another referendum rather than just try and do
it by the back door. But for this particular loan,
it is going to make a huge difference to Ukraine.
Why we the UK needs to join the EU scheme
is another matter.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Hey, how do you write the chances that rackcomb Leeditch
gets out.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, such are his crimes, you would think lo but
there are others saying no, we need to show compassion.
So lawyers acting for the convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal
Ratco Meladdic are hoping to see him released from jail
because he's near the end of his life. The eighty
four year old was jailed in twenty seventeen for genocide,

(03:25):
war crimes, crimes against humanity for his part during the
wars in the former Yugoslavia between nineteen ninety two and
nineteen ninety five. He's better known by the tag of
the Butcher of Bosnia. Now he's been ill for some time,
bed bounder in a wheelchair. However, he was speaking to
his son on the telephone when he suffered a suspected stroke.
Two doctors say his condition is very serious and at

(03:48):
risk of imminent death. So his solicitors are saying, look,
you know, show humanity here. He's nearly dead. He's not
going to cause any problem to anyone, and therefore he
should be allowed to see his family for these dying days. However,
of course, we do know that during the war in
which his troops committed ethnic cleansing and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
he besieged the main city of Sarajevo. There were the

(04:10):
deaths of more than ten thousand people. He carried out
a massacre of eight thousand men and boys at Schrebernice.
So this is a rather difficult decision for the authorities
to make.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Quite imagine, Kevin, thank you very much, appreciate it. Gvin Gray,
UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
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