Speaker 1: Hey, that folks. It is Monday, May fourth, and the
Speaker 1: same rare virus that killed actor Gene Hackman's wife is
Speaker 1: now suspected in an outbreak on a cruise ship that
Speaker 1: has killed at least three people so far. And with that,
Speaker 1: welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robe. I
Speaker 1: have not heard hantavirus since Gene Hackman and his wife died.
Speaker 2: And that was the first time I had ever heard
Speaker 2: of hantavirus. And it is a rare virus, and it's
Speaker 2: even rarer. Apparently there is only one strain known in
Speaker 2: the world to actually spread from human to human, and
Speaker 2: right now, that is what the World Health Organization believes
Speaker 2: is happening to a cruise ship that is now stranded
Speaker 2: out in a very remote part of the world, waiting
Speaker 2: for coordination and help to get at least two urgently
Speaker 2: ill crew members off that show and eventually somehow evacuate
Speaker 2: the one hundred and seventy passengers.
Speaker 1: Let's start with our numbers and make sure I have
Speaker 1: these numbers right, and we'll go through because some of
Speaker 1: these deaths were not just on the cruise ship. We'll explain.
Speaker 1: But three dead, right, yes, okay, three sick yes, Now
Speaker 1: where are those three that are sick.
Speaker 2: One of them is a British national who is in
Speaker 2: a private hospital in Johannesburg.
Speaker 3: He is fighting for his life. He is in intensive care.
Speaker 2: The other two who are urgently ill and need and
Speaker 2: require evacuation, are on board the ship right now. One
Speaker 2: of the dead bodies is on board the ship right now,
Speaker 2: and to one of the patients died in the hospital
Speaker 2: after collapsing in the airport, and the other one died
Speaker 2: at port once he disembarked, but he got sick on board.
Speaker 1: Those were the two. That's the elderly couple. Yeah, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a tough one to hear.
Speaker 2: It's sad because what happened was the seven year old
Speaker 2: man died once they were in port. She then and
Speaker 2: his wife, who's sixty nine years old, is arranging her
Speaker 2: plane ticket to head back home to meet his body
Speaker 2: back in the Netherlands where they live. She collapses at
Speaker 2: the airport, is rushed to the hospital and dies shortly
Speaker 2: after the hospital. So, yes, a married couple died within
Speaker 2: hours of one another, or at least within a day.
Speaker 3: Of each other.
Speaker 1: Ah, right, So we have to figure out now here
Speaker 1: robes what we're dealing with. Let's go back and why
Speaker 1: this is all important because you just mentioned there's only
Speaker 1: one particular I mean, this is so rare, but it's
Speaker 1: not known. It's very specific that passed from human to
Speaker 1: human that has not been confirmed whether or not it's
Speaker 1: that yet has it.
Speaker 2: They have not confirmed it's the andes virus. But here's
Speaker 2: the deal. That particular type of the hantavirus is found
Speaker 2: only in South America. This ship left and I know
Speaker 2: this port well, in Argentina Ushuaia. It is the gateway
Speaker 2: to Antarctica. It's how folks go to the remotest islands
Speaker 2: in the world, all along Antarctica. It's a tremendous, gorgeous, spectacular,
Speaker 2: bucket list type of cruise that people wait their whole lives,
Speaker 2: save up their money to go and see one of
Speaker 2: the rarest and most remote parts of the world.
Speaker 3: So, yes, they left in Argentina.
Speaker 2: That is where this particular strain of hantavirus has been
Speaker 2: found before.
Speaker 1: So as you say, there's a bucket list trip, and
Speaker 1: what we're talking about here, folks, it's been out there
Speaker 1: on the water for three weeks. This is a month
Speaker 1: plus tour. So The folks we're talking about on this
Speaker 1: are probably a lot of elderly folks, probably a lot
Speaker 1: of retirees. People they got time on their hand, but
Speaker 1: it's also something they have been waiting for a long
Speaker 1: time in their life. No, that's not the most important
Speaker 1: thing right now. Just to give some context for what
Speaker 1: this cruise is and where it was heading now, ropes
Speaker 1: a hantavirus. What this is, they say, is it's found
Speaker 1: in rat in rodent feces and urine is where it's
Speaker 1: usually found. You can speculate all day long. You just
Speaker 1: talked about where the port is. You could talk about
Speaker 1: what might have been nasty on that ship, But right
Speaker 1: now we don't know how this thing is being spread around.
Speaker 1: And that is a really really big deal right now.
Speaker 3: Isn't that scary? Because here's the deal.
Speaker 2: You've got shared air part of how this is transmitted
Speaker 2: to humans, even if it's directly from a mouse that
Speaker 2: may be on board the ship that maybe god on
Speaker 2: board from Argentina. Maybe some of these folks or one
Speaker 2: of these folks brought the haunt of virus to the
Speaker 2: actual ship itself after having been at port there in Ushuaia, Argentina.
Speaker 2: But imagine this is how you get it. You inhale it.
Speaker 2: You inhale either dried mouse droppings or that urine as
Speaker 2: you pointed out. And then yes, if this is spreading
Speaker 2: from human to human. The scary thing about this particular disease,
Speaker 2: this hauntavirus, it rapidly progresses and quickly becomes life threatening.
Speaker 2: There is a forty percent fatality rate if you get
Speaker 2: this virus that is so frightening. That's one of the
Speaker 2: deadliest viruses out there.
Speaker 1: And there's no cure for it. They can treat you,
Speaker 1: they can catch it, they can help you, but they
Speaker 1: don't you got haunts of virus. They don't go to
Speaker 1: the shelf and pull off some specific drug. They don't.
Speaker 1: There is no cure for this thing. So roades the
Speaker 1: significance there. Well, I think they got They're pretty sure
Speaker 1: they got everybody at least contained on this same ship.
Speaker 1: But a woman was walking through the airport right she
Speaker 1: got to the airport, she got there, she almost gone
Speaker 1: to plane, for God's sake.
Speaker 2: Yes, she was walking through the airport and her husband
Speaker 2: was walking through the port.
Speaker 3: There. So now all the local islands, all.
Speaker 2: The coordination, the contact tracing that we unfortunately know all
Speaker 2: about because of COVID is all going down going on
Speaker 2: right now, all.
Speaker 3: Of these places.
Speaker 2: This cruise ship made docks and and port and went
Speaker 2: into port. Because think about it, yes, a three week
Speaker 2: cruise already, it's a forty two day cruise. They probably
Speaker 2: came in contact with a lot of folks and it
Speaker 2: can take one to eight weeks before symptoms arise, So
Speaker 2: that's a pretty long period of time. People will have
Speaker 2: to wait in incubation period of that long up to
Speaker 2: two months.
Speaker 1: That's scary before you're symptomatic at all.
Speaker 2: Correct, It can take up to eight weeks before you're symptomatic.
Speaker 1: Can you be contagious while you're not symptomatic?
Speaker 3: Possibly, they don't know.
Speaker 2: This particular strain, they say is so rare and it's
Speaker 2: only happened in a few cases. Someone put it like this,
Speaker 2: a medical professional who knows about this disease said, if
Speaker 2: it's proven that this cruise ship actually had a case
Speaker 2: of haunted virus that was spread from human to human,
Speaker 2: it will change this is a quote. It will change
Speaker 2: the future of travel medicine and infectious disease and tropical medicine,
Speaker 2: and it will certainly change how cruise ships operate in
Speaker 2: these parts of the world, in South America, anywhere this
Speaker 2: particular virus can be found as rare as is as
Speaker 2: it is, you can see what happens if unfortunately it
Speaker 2: somehow makes its way on a cruise ship.
Speaker 1: And another part of this, this thing isn't just off
Speaker 1: the coast of Florida, where you could get all kinds
Speaker 1: of help, and you can get all kind of they
Speaker 1: have the best medicine and doctors and equipment, and we
Speaker 1: can get out to This is Rhodes, like you said,
Speaker 1: this is off the northern coast of western Africa.
Speaker 3: To have a location right Cape Verde, I believe is
Speaker 3: what it's called.
Speaker 1: They're not exactly, they don't have access to the right
Speaker 1: and where they are in a remote area way out
Speaker 1: here Ropes. That's a part of the conversation now, Babe.
Speaker 3: This cruise ship went through the Drake Passage.
Speaker 2: I have done this journey as well, and it looks
Speaker 2: like the only way they'll be able to get help.
Speaker 2: And this is what I believe they're trying to coordinate
Speaker 2: right now, is to get some sort of helicopter, some
Speaker 2: sort of airlift from the cruise ship to the correct
Speaker 2: medical facility. The crew members are Dutch nationals, so the
Speaker 2: Netherlands and then the UK has some passengers on board
Speaker 2: as well. They're trying to coordinate to try and see
Speaker 2: how they can get these passengers off because, as you
Speaker 2: might imagine, nobody wants them to disembark on their island
Speaker 2: or come through their or airport or their terminal. No
Speaker 2: one wants to bring this into their area or their community.
Speaker 1: What are's supposed to do, eh, I mean, because we've
Speaker 1: got a weak one to eight weeks obviously not you
Speaker 1: can't do. You do not want these They are essentially
Speaker 1: quarantined right now, and the last thing they want is
Speaker 1: for these folks to be out in the wind, essentially
Speaker 1: out there in the world, lying around or floating around
Speaker 1: robes one to eight weeks. What can they test now?
Speaker 1: I wonder, is every single passenger going to have to
Speaker 1: get cleared obviously before they can set foot get home.
Speaker 2: The answer to that question is absolutely yes. So they
Speaker 2: said right now they're trying to coordinate with local health
Speaker 2: official officials to create some sort of a plan for
Speaker 2: disembarkation and medical screening of all guests and crews. So again,
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy passengers I believe, and seventy crew
Speaker 2: members when they took off. That is a heck of
Speaker 2: a lot of people, and right now they're still waiting
Speaker 2: for confirmation they leave. It's highly likely that obviously the
Speaker 2: other two folks who died died of hauntavirus and the
Speaker 2: three who were sick and to also have it. But
Speaker 2: they're still even waiting for that official confirmation right now.
Speaker 3: So clearly it takes time.
Speaker 2: Before these tests can let you know for sure whether
Speaker 2: or not you have been infected.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is look. I know the human life is
Speaker 1: the most important part here, but what a miserable time
Speaker 1: for it. Because they're on the ship rode. They still
Speaker 1: need food, they still need water, they still need things
Speaker 1: right to be on that ship. And you now in
Speaker 1: her position, I would assume ropes they're being told to
Speaker 1: stay away from each other. So they're now hold up
Speaker 1: in rooms in all likelihood for how long. We don't
Speaker 1: know that one to eight week thing we just happened
Speaker 1: to be. You've probably caught this line. We just happened
Speaker 1: to be watching Outbreak the other day, where the thing
Speaker 1: that gave Morgan Freeman comfort about this virus was that
Speaker 1: it killed so quickly. I said, look, it's twenty four
Speaker 1: it's twenty four hour incvation period. Look the upside for us,
Speaker 1: it's these poor bastards don't even live long enough to
Speaker 1: spread the thing around. So this works in our favor. Roads.
Speaker 1: You don't know for one to eight weeks. This could
Speaker 1: be two months down the road, and somebody could be
Speaker 1: back home in Germany spreading this around, and we have
Speaker 1: to stop that. And that's why I wrote this story
Speaker 1: this morning. Rotes, Yes, it is away from us, it's
Speaker 1: the distance from us. It's a rare, rare virus. But Robes,
Speaker 1: what's happening now is how pandemics starts, Yes, how spread.
Speaker 1: It's how they need to stop a virus because this
Speaker 1: thing will beat us if it gets going. And who
Speaker 1: this is worth paying attention to, folks, because of what
Speaker 1: we're talking about, how rare and how even rare are
Speaker 1: robes person to person.
Speaker 2: And this is scary if this particular, a particular deadly
Speaker 2: virulent strain that can spread from human to human has
Speaker 2: been contained for all this time to basically they Argentina
Speaker 2: and that's where it stayed. To think that it's now
Speaker 2: been put on a cruise ship with hundreds of passengers
Speaker 2: getting on and off this cruise ship.
Speaker 3: Granted again in a remote part of the world.
Speaker 2: But if they have to head back to hospitals to
Speaker 2: be treated, to go back to Europe or wherever it
Speaker 2: is they're from, that is a frightening endeavor that you know,
Speaker 2: all precautions have to be taken.
Speaker 3: So when we come back, we're going to tell you.
Speaker 2: About just how rare the hantavirus is and exactly what
Speaker 2: happens to your body when you contract it.
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back here we continue on this. Amy
Speaker 1: and TJ did not have a hantavirus on the Bingo
Speaker 1: card for top headlines here owes, but here is where
Speaker 1: we are. It's a significant story worth paying attention to.
Speaker 1: Hantavirus is not something most of us think about, talk about,
Speaker 1: know anything about, but started studying a little bit once
Speaker 1: Gene Hackman and his wife died because it was found
Speaker 1: that she had hauntavirus in her system. We are like,
Speaker 1: what the hell is going on? And now here we
Speaker 1: are again?
Speaker 3: And who knew?
Speaker 2: In New Mexico is one of the only places in
Speaker 2: this country where hauntavirus is known to be prevalent. Again,
Speaker 2: and that is just a transmission from rodent urine or
Speaker 2: feces to a human.
Speaker 3: You breathe in dried remains.
Speaker 2: So they say, if you're vacuuming or sweeping and you
Speaker 2: have rodents in the area, especially if you live in
Speaker 2: New Mexico, this is something you have to watch out for.
Speaker 2: Hadn't heard of it before the Gene Hackman situation. But
Speaker 2: now here we are on a cruise ship that is
Speaker 2: literally stuck in a remote part of the world off
Speaker 2: the coast of Cape Verde, and right now there are.
Speaker 3: Two urgently ill crew members.
Speaker 2: There is a dead body on board, there was a
Speaker 2: man fighting for his life in South Africa, and two
Speaker 2: dead passengers. Now, so this is serious and hauntavirus, as
Speaker 2: you mentioned Babe, has no known treatment and it rapidly
Speaker 2: progresses a forty percent fatality rate. But what it does
Speaker 2: is it causes flu like symptoms where you get fevers, chills,
Speaker 2: body aches, and headaches. Okay, but then it develops into
Speaker 2: shortness of breath and then your lungs end up filling
Speaker 2: with fluids and you either die by lung and or
Speaker 2: heart failure. So this is scary. The only thing that
Speaker 2: they can do in terms of giving you rest and fluids.
Speaker 2: Is hope that it goes away on its own, that
Speaker 2: your body is able to fight it, and in worst
Speaker 2: case scenarios, they'll put you on a ventilator, but with
Speaker 2: a death rate. The way that is it is this
Speaker 2: is a scary, scary disease that no one wants to
Speaker 2: mess with.
Speaker 1: So what'd you say? Shows up for a symptom wise
Speaker 1: flu like symptoms?
Speaker 2: So you might just think, oh, I've got a headache,
Speaker 2: and I think that is what the man when he
Speaker 2: was disembarking was complaining of a headache, feeling.
Speaker 3: A little achy, you know.
Speaker 2: And so it starts out where you just think I
Speaker 2: caught something, I've come down with something. Then it rapidly progresses,
Speaker 2: but the onset of that flu like symptoms can take
Speaker 2: several weeks.
Speaker 3: And that's the scary, scary, scary part.
Speaker 2: By the way, the CDC has been tracking this disease
Speaker 2: since it began its surveillance in nineteen ninety three, there
Speaker 2: have only been eight hundred and ninety known cases. That
Speaker 2: is how rare this disease is, and that is why
Speaker 2: this is such an unbelievably rare occurrence.
Speaker 3: To have something like this happen.
Speaker 1: That was a US number you just gave, right.
Speaker 3: That was I believe eight. Well look they said, okay,
Speaker 3: that's a good point.
Speaker 2: I guess our in the United States eight hundred and
Speaker 2: ninety cases of hantavirus since surveillance began in nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: So we are that's still nine hundred cases in thirty years, right,
Speaker 1: what are we doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right, yes, and we have never heard of it. Very rare,
Speaker 2: very rare, and very scary. And Lord knows the health
Speaker 2: authorities there in that area and certainly back in the
Speaker 2: home countries that these passengers are working around the clock
Speaker 2: to try and come up with some sort of an
Speaker 2: evacuation plan for these folks who right now are floating
Speaker 2: at sea and probably nervous as hell because you don't.
Speaker 1: Know if you're sick, and if you are, you don't
Speaker 1: have any specialty equipment there to treat you.
Speaker 2: This.
Speaker 1: I mean, I hate a one hundred and fifty hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy seve hundred.
Speaker 3: And seventy passengers and seventy crew members.
Speaker 1: This is going This will be a story to follow
Speaker 1: for the week, not just for what is robes going
Speaker 1: on on that ship, but what possibly is going on
Speaker 1: wherever it has stopped, and whoever that airport, are they
Speaker 1: screening those anybody she might have come in contact with,
Speaker 1: and we robes. We've seen these movies, but that tracing
Speaker 1: of a virus is some very significant detective work. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's going on.
Speaker 2: And I can tell you that having gone through Ushuaia,
Speaker 2: Argentina and trying to get back into the United States
Speaker 2: and literally this was just after COVID, so all of
Speaker 2: these protocols were in place. We had to go through
Speaker 2: five different airports to go through an airport that was
Speaker 2: verified by the United States as able to handle dealing
Speaker 2: with the coronavirus.
Speaker 3: That was, however, many years ago.
Speaker 2: Now with something like this, just these types of airports
Speaker 2: and ports don't have the screening capabilities that we're used
Speaker 2: to in our western civilization. So this is going to
Speaker 2: be an extra difficult task for local officials. And we
Speaker 2: will of course stay on top of the story, keep
Speaker 2: you updated on it for you, But in the meantime,
Speaker 2: thank you for listening to us.
Speaker 3: As always, I made me Roebuck alongside T. J. Holmes.
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you soon.