{"text":[[{"start":10.35,"text":"Almost 150 travellers stranded on a luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly rodent-borne virus will be repatriated via the Canary Islands as alarm grows over an outbreak that has claimed the lives of three passengers."}],[{"start":25,"text":"The Spanish government said on Wednesday that the passengers remaining on the MV Hondius would arrive in Tenerife in three to four days then be evacuated from the ship on Monday."}],[{"start":35.65,"text":"Spain plans to bring 14 Spanish citizens on the ship to Madrid, where they will be put in quarantine in a military hospital “for as long as it takes”, Spain’s health minister Mónica García said."}],[{"start":48.55,"text":"Non-Spaniards will be sent home if they have no symptoms. EU member states will be asked to evacuate their own citizens, said an interior ministry official. The transportation of people from other countries will be discussed at a Spanish government meeting on Thursday."}],[{"start":65.35,"text":"A Dutch couple travelling on the ship have died along with a German passenger. In total the World Health Organization says eight cases have been confirmed."}],[{"start":73.6,"text":"The outbreak is caused by a pathogen known as a hantavirus that is carried by mice and rats, with some strains capable of spreading between people."}],[{"start":82.94999999999999,"text":"The virus often infects humans through the inhalation of dust containing rodent faeces, sometimes going on to cause severe symptoms including internal bleeding, kidney failure and acute respiratory problems."}],[{"start":95.6,"text":"Tests on infected passengers confirmed they had the Andes strain of hantavirus, which has previously been implicated in human-to-human transmission."}],[{"start":104.6,"text":"Health authorities and scientists have stressed there is no evidence the virus can spread between people as easily as Covid-19."}],[{"start":111.89999999999999,"text":"Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said he did “not believe” the situation was similar to the beginning of the Covid pandemic. “For now, the risk to the rest of the world is low,” he told AFP in Geneva on Wednesday."}],[{"start":126.69999999999999,"text":"Three people with suspected cases of hantavirus, including one British national, were evacuated from the ship on Wednesday and flown to the Netherlands. One other infected patient is in South Africa and another in Switzerland. "}],[{"start":140.2,"text":"Spain’s García said all those remaining on the vessel were symptom-free."}],[{"start":145.29999999999998,"text":"The UK Health Security Agency said it was aware of two people from the cruise who had returned to the UK “independently”. It said they were not currently reporting symptoms and had been advised to “self-isolate”."}],[{"start":157.7,"text":"Yvette Cooper, Britain’s foreign secretary, said the outbreak was “very serious and deeply stressful”. The UK government was working urgently “to make sure British nationals on the MV Hondius can all get safely home with proper protection for public health,” she said."}],[{"start":174.25,"text":"The ship, which left Argentina on a polar cruise in early April, has been anchored in the Atlantic in Cape Verde off the coast of west Africa."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":182.1,"text":"The confined environment of the cruise ship would provide conditions for the kind of close contacts that could drive limited people-to-people spread, scientists said."}],[{"start":192.25,"text":"Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise operator, on Wednesday said it was “expanding medical care on board with two infectious disease physicians, arriving today by plane from the Netherlands. This ensures that optimal medical care can be provided if necessary, during the next stage of this evolving situation.”"}],[{"start":210.55,"text":"Sir Andrew Pollard, professor of infection and immunity at the University of Oxford, said the use of standard protocols should enable the virus to be contained."}],[{"start":219.75,"text":"“With these public health measures rigorously in place, the risk of onward transmission to the wider community should be essentially zero,” Pollard said."}],[{"start":228.95,"text":"The Spanish government reached an agreement with the WHO this week on how to handle the outbreak."}],[{"start":234.6,"text":"Fernando Clavijo, president of the regional government in the Canary Islands, has criticised Madrid for excluding his team from a crucial meeting on managing the situation."}],[{"start":244.95,"text":"“We have had no contact, and we would have liked the cabinet or the prime minister himself to allow us to attend the co-ordination meeting,” Clavijo said in Brussels. “We believe there should be respect and institutional loyalty, and in this case one cannot simply exclude a [region] that probably has something to say.”"}],[{"start":264.8,"text":"Additional reporting by Carmen Muela. Cartography by May Bancoyo"}],[{"start":277.35,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778120299_6954.mp3"}