Argentina, the Cruise Ship & Andean Hantavirus

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Carole Walker for Times Radio. 

Transcript

Carole Walker 0:00

Officials are investigating whether the deadly outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship came from Argentina, where the boat set sail from. Three people on board have already died of the disease, which kills nearly a fifth of people who contract it. Three more have been evacuated to the Netherlands for urgent care. The rest of the passengers on board have been told to isolate until they can dock in the Canary Islands, though it has now been reported that two British citizens on board are isolating at home back in the UK. John Bonfilio, a Latin America correspondent, joins us now. Good evening to you, John. Hey, Carol. Um, really good to have you with us. Uh, it has clearly been uh a horrendous ordeal for all of the passengers and crew on board this ship. Um what is the latest about where it is and where it's going?

Jon Bonfiglio 0:56

Yeah, and actually one of the things about the its uh it uh we understand impending arrival in Tenerife is that even once the vessel docks there, the incubation period for the for the virus is for this strand of the virus is anything between one week and eight weeks. So it's not entirely, it's not clear that the passengers are going to be allowed to uh to disembark there. Um the the ship latest is uh that off the ship contract um contact tracing continues internationally, with as you say, two British nationals now back in the UK being advised to self-isolate. But I understand that there are a number of others internationally uh as well that are doing the same. On the vessel itself, medical emergencies among the passengers have now been airlifted uh to Europe, and the ship is now en route, as I say, to Tenerife. It was barred from entry into Cape Verde, and so it's headed to the Canary Islands, where the Spanish government finally has said that it's going to allow it to dock, although local authorities are none too happy about the decision.

Carole Walker 1:50

Yeah, um the Times uh here in London has um got some details of one of uh the British crew members who was evacuated from the cruise ship, um, Martin Anstey, uh he is a former police officer who was um on board as an expert guide. Um do we know how these people um I mean the Times reports that they returned independently to the UK from the cruise ship. Do we know how they've how they've got back and how they've managed to self-isolate all the way?

Jon Bonfiglio 2:26

So I I'm not entirely I think there's different cases, but it being a sort of a uh a cruise ship, if you like, I mean it is a much smaller cruise ship than the ones that you know we see in our in our mind's eye. It's only got a hundred capacity for 150 people, and it is um it's uh sort of a, I want to say a wilderness, wildlife cruise ship. So it does undertake a number of different stops. So presumably the UK nationals um sort of to uh removed themselves or got off the cruise ship before uh this became a sort of a huge uh issue. I think what is what is interesting about the the the likely contagions or the sort of the suggestion about the contagion, uh where the contagions came from is that um, as you say, it it did uh it sort of emerge in Argentina itself, or the lead theory at least is that contamination occurred during this uh the bird watching in uh Ushuaia in southern Argentina before uh the uh they boarded the uh the vessel, and from there that different types of transmission happened, as in human uh human-to-human transmission, uh, rather than originating from shipboard conditions, of course. Specifically, interestingly, the working theory is that the initial infections took place at a landfill in Ushuaia, because of course we know now that antivirus is transmitted by rodents, by excriment, by urine, and by by saliva. So it's sort of um the assumption is that it takes us back to that landfill where the strangely enough, perhaps um, or counterintuitively, the bird watching tours regularly visit because of the wide array of unusual birds which uh which congregate there. Now, a problem with the theory remains that whilst this Andean strain that we're talking about, the Andes virus, is endemic in Argentina and Chile, it has actually never to date been recorded in Ushuaia or the Tierra del Fuego region immediately which uh which surrounds it.

Carole Walker 4:08

Yeah, I I'm interested you say that because I'm sure many people listening to this um will never have heard of Hantavirus until um this particular story emerged. But uh are you saying it is something that is quite common in in perhaps that part of Argentina?

Jon Bonfiglio 4:26

Yeah, it's actually, I mean, there's there's a number of hundred different strains that exist internationally. And it was recently in the media as well, probably what, about a year ago, with the death of Gene Hackman and his wife in New Mexico that uh that succumbed to Hantavirus in their in their home uh as well. But what's unique about this one is that this is the only one that has registered that the Andes strain of the virus is the only one that has registered human-to-human transmission. Ordinarily, it is uh the the vector is the rat and it is transmitted between uh the creature and the human, but it's very rare for it to be uh human-to-human. Actually, in since it was first this strain was discovered in Argentina in 1995, the first human-to-human transmission was reported a year later in 96. And since then, we've actually seen sporadic outbreaks uh in both Argentina and Chile featuring this person-to-person uh transmission. And what's especially worrying as well is I mean, you you mentioned at the top of the piece that it has a fatality rate, hantavirus generally has a fatality rate of 20%. Um, this particular strain actually has a fatality rate of two in every five people. So it goes up from 20% to 40% fatality.

Carole Walker 5:33

Yeah, and clearly that will be a really um worrying um fact for those that are still well over 120 passengers still on board. Um, the other um aspect of this that has been highlighted by this outbreak um is just the difficulty of how to deal with uh something like this when clearly uh the authorities in Cape Verde didn't want to have um uh the potential even of virus of the virus being um brought um onto their shores. This ship is now heading, we're told, for Tenerife. Initially, um uh senior figures in the Canary Islands were were pretty reluctant to take it. Is it clear what is gonna happen when it gets to Tenerife? I mean, as you say, this virus has it can take many weeks to incubate, so people may not have symptoms, but could actually be carrying the virus. So do we know what's what's gonna happen if and when this ship does actually dock it in Tenerife?

Jon Bonfiglio 6:34

Um we we don't know, and I think what's actually really interesting here is that actually what's being sort of the international decisions that are being made around this ship actually have very little to do with with this vessel, with this cruise ship and hantavirus specifically. What everybody is reacting to is the memory of uh COVID and coronavirus and the cruise ships that we saw um unable to dock uh in a variety of different countries, because of course everybody knew what was going to happen. This is a very different kind of um disease. It's it's not going to spread in the way that uh the COVID um did at uh at the time, but there is a general fear, um, and not just a fear of the of the potential contagion, but also a fear of public uh reaction, notwithstanding, uh as I said a minute ago, there is absolutely no certainty whatsoever as to uh what may take place on arrival, because of course the nightmare situation is that you allow everybody to go off. They go on about their their lives in different um countries and contexts. And I mean it we've only had eight cases, but eight cases against 150 people, even though it's a confined environment. Again, the nightmare situation is that these people go about their their way and that um there are blooms of the virus uh internationally.

Carole Walker 7:47

Yeah, and and of course, I'm I mean, just briefly, um, that is the nightmare for those people on board still not knowing whether they're actually going to be able to get off, whether they will be able to self-isolate elsewhere.

Jon Bonfiglio 7:59

Yeah, I mean no ultimately the the terrible situation or the terrible reality for them is that they're expendable. That what everybody wants is to make sure that it doesn't spread beyond the cruise ship. And that is everybody's singular uh priority, and that's what I think must be uh most terrifying for them above and uh and beyond everything else.

Carole Walker 8:21

John Bonfilio, uh Latin American correspondent. Um, really good to get that update. Thank you so much for joining us. No problem. Thanks, Carol.