Hantavirus: what we know about the cruise ship outbreak
5/11/202613 min
A cruise ship at the centre of a virus outbreak — sound familiar?
Passengers and crew are beginning to disembark the MV Hondius after several cases of hantavirus sent them into quarantine.
The virus is usually caught through contact with infected rodent urine, droppings or saliva. Transmission between humans is rare.
Norman and Tegan answer common questions about the hantavirus, and how it compares to the handling of COVID-19.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTegan· Host0:00
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Norman· Host0:05
So you might think you're listening to What's That Rash?, but you're actually listening to the first episode of Hantacast.
Tegan· Host0:14
[laughs] Oh my gosh. Don't wish that upon us. This actually is the old Coronacast feed if you're subscribed to What's That Rash? And we're going back to our roots today because we are talking about a viral outbreak. It's Norman and Tegan. We're here for a bonus episode of what... Yeah, fine, fine, fine. Let's call it Hantacast. Why not?
Norman· Host0:30
Indeed. And we're not gonna be talking about bats. We're gonna be talking about rats.
Tegan· Host0:36
Uh-huh. Exactly. So okay, let's start with some basics briefly, Norman. What is hantavirus? Where does it come from? What, what's going on here?
Norman· Host0:45
Well, nobody knew it existed probably until probably 50 years ago or so. Um, and it's called hantavirus because the first outbreak, known outbreak to Western medicine, should I say, was along the Hantan River, hence Hanta- Mm ... Hantan River in Korea during the Korean War. 3,000 or thereabouts United Nations troops came down with a hemorrhagic fever, so fever, bleeding, and it also affected their kidneys, and they got kidney failure, and a high percentage of them died, so several hundred of them died. And it's thought that in fact they might have taken the virus, the American troops might have taken the virus back to the United States.