Canadians FACE Deadly Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship at Sea? - Episode #145

Welcome to Tav's Headline News Reviews! 

A mysterious and deadly outbreak is unfolding on a cruise ship at sea, leaving Canadians and other passengers in a state of panic. The Hantavirus, a rare and highly contagious disease, has been identified as the potential culprit behind the outbreak. As the ship sails through international waters, the risk of infection spreads, and the crew scrambles to contain the situation. With limited medical resources and no nearby ports for evacuation, the passengers are faced with a desperate fight for survival. The Hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship raises questions about the safety and preparedness of the cruise industry, and the potential consequences of such an outbreak on a confined and isolated environment. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Thanks for joining us on Monday, May the 11th, 2026. Well, I thought we'd do a story on something that everybody's been talking about for the last couple of days, but I want to focus in on the Canadians that are on board this cruise ship, um, this adventure expedition type cruise ship, not a typical uh ship most of the public sails on. So this luxury expedition cruise ship has turned into an international health emergency. The ship, the MV Honduras, I think it is, operated by oceanwine expeditions. The illness, the virus, is similar to the Andes virus strain, a very rare strain that can sometimes spread between people. The human toll is already serious. Eight reported cases, including three deaths and five confirmed as the Hata virus, according to the World Health Organization. And now Canadians are part of the story. Three Canadians connected to the cruise ship during the outbreak are now self-isolating in Ontario, the province of Ontario, and the province of Quebec, according to Canadian officials. So let's let's find out how this started. Let's uh see how many Canadians were on it, what the end is, and what uh where the ship is, what was its travel, its timeline, and let's get all the information that we can so we have a full understanding of what's taking place on this cruise ship. I have a BBC article on the screen, and it's dated May the 6th. More than 20 different viral species according to the World Health Organization. Almost all of them are linked to infection by rodents, typically racks and mice through dry urine and droppings. The headline is what is the cruise ship hat virus and what does it spread? How does it spread? Sorry. It doesn't spread like COVID, it's not COVID, and we shouldn't be pretending or getting all worried about that. It's another COVID. I can't tell you how many people contacted me to ask me, is this another COVID? It's not another COVID. So let's start on that point. Um the cruise ship departed Argentina on April the 6th. This article is May the 6th. It was carrying passengers and crew from multiple countries on an expedition type slide style cruise, various uh locations they were stopping. Nothing typical of touristy areas, it's more of a sightseeing, exploring type cruise. During the voyage voyage, passengers began uh falling ill within the ship with symptoms that were later linked to the virus. The first reported death happened on April the 11th, and I think based on what I've read, it seemed like they really didn't know what was going on or didn't they got it was any uh anything to worry about it. The second then started ringing alarm bells for everybody on the ship. Uh, I even think the the doctor got ill on the ship. Uh the second death uh followed shortly after, and then the third death was reported on May the 2nd. Again, this article here is May the 6th, and the ship later became the focus of international public attention and health monitoring as it moved to Cape Verden and then towards the Canary Islands. So it started to rapidly become a story around the world. I have the article on the screen from US today. Uh, look at the date, May the 4th, 2026. Three deaths on board the cruise ship, and it's uh human-to-human contact. Uh the virus is suspected in best of three people, and illness on board uh six people are showing symptoms on the cruise ship across the Atlantic Ocean, as it was reported by the Welf uh the World's Health Organization on May the 4th. So, what is this virus? Why should we be concerned about it? It's been around for a long time. Um most virus infections are linked to exposure to infection, uh, infected rodents of this particular virus, especially regard uh regarding the urine and the droppings and saliva of the rodents. But the strain connected to this outbreak is believed to be more of the Andes virus. That's why I keep uh going back to this Andes virus, which is usual unusual because it has been associated with rare person-to-person spread. So, what everybody's calling it, it's really the Andes virus because it's been known to spread from people to people. That detail is why the uh this outbreak is being treated so serious, and more importantly, there is no cure for this virus. Um basically the the standard form of treatment would be hospitalization, incubation, um, basically all the things that they did with COVID, uh just that there's no magic bullet that's going to cure it. There's no medication or anything that is going to cure this virus. But it does spread, but it's close contact. It isn't anything like COVID, it isn't as dangerous as COVID. And but when you get ill, you need treatment. Um, you need a lot of treatment very quickly. I did read a Reuters report that health officials were monitoring the travel travelers from the ship in several U.S. states, while the CDC says the risk to the general public remains very low. Well, that's what they said when COVID started to break out. I mean, I remember them telling us not even to wear masks with COVID. So again, they don't want to cause any panic with anybody. And the big concern is that the anti's virus that is known for person-to-person spread. And as you can see on this, these articles was person-to-person spread on the cruise ship, and that's what got everybody's attention. Now I have an article from City News on the screen. The government says three Canadians isolating at home after the outbreak on the cruise ship. So, what is the Canadian connection to this? And that's what really doing this episode for. Uh, Canadian officials say that three Canadians connected to the outbreak on the ship are self-isolating at home, I think, uh, in the province of Ontario and Quebec. Two of the Canadian passengers were reportedly they left the ship uh on April the 24th. So that's before the outbreak took place in St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic. A third Canadian that was not part of the cruise, so we're talking about three, so two are isolating. The third one was not on the cruise, but traveled with the other two, probably in the commercial airline on the way home. And that one is self-isolating as well, just for precautionary measures. Um early early reporting uh also said a fourth Canadian has been is on board the cruise ship. Uh, but it's important to note this none of them are showing symptoms of the virus. Uh they're perfectly fine, they just need to go through the isolation period uh before they can be released. So it's important to note that none of them are infected, none of them are showing signs of the virus. Two more articles up on the screen. So infections thought to have killed three people on the cruise. Uh magazine captain of the cruise ship told the passengers disease was not infectious after the first death. Again, that first death, I don't think we bought much of it. No concerns, no alarm bells. And I would point to that's the reason why he didn't want to cause any panic on the ship. They really didn't know what they were dealing with. So, you know, trapped at sea was the angle by the media. It was wall-to-wall coverage. It instilled fear and uncertainty around this cruise. Many people thought, here we go again, COVID. Again, passengers are stuck on this situation, stuck on this ship. And the main concern after um everybody got over at what was happening on the ship is how we were going to get people off the ship. And nobody wanted to be the country that they they couldn't dock the ship because countries wouldn't let them get off the ship. Uh so Spain has now offered to allow the ship to come to the Canary Islands, and as of today, Monday, the ship did arrive yesterday and they started taking people off the ship uh for examination, and uh and they've been put on either private jets, chartered jets, or they've been kept for isolation uh until they can be released. But none of them. The Spanish authorities have made it clear clear that none of the passengers that have got off the ship have any contact with the public in Spain, and they are being very closely monitored and closely examined. And when it's safe to return everybody home, they will for the people that don't have those chartered um arrangements to get home. And that's where things stand right now. So the ship has docked, and people have been taken off and are being monitored. Two more articles on the screen, one's from Reuters, and one is from the World Health Organization. So the one from Reuters basically countries are tracking passengers of virus hit by cruise ship. That's May the 7th. And prior to that, May the 4th, the World Health Organization stated that an adult male developed the symptoms, fever, headache, mild diarrhea on April the 6th while on board the ship by the 11th of April. The case developed respiratory distress and died on board the ship. And that's the first casualty that was on the ship. Now, there was a lot of confusion regarding the communication that was coming out of the ship, communication from the media. One of the major issues were the were told early on, as I said, that there wasn't any any issue, uh, that it wasn't a contagious disease, they didn't know what they were dealing with. Uh, there was no evidence as far as the ship's um captain and his crew that they were dealing with anything dangerous. And that's what caused all the confusion. And the communication was not accurate, uh, and sounds like everything that we went through with COVID, but in a smaller scale, because in COVID, there was so missing, so much misinformation at the beginning that nobody really knew what they were dealing with, and no one wanted to believe that we were dealing with something that was very, very dangerous. And now we're gonna take a look at a quick timeline. Now, first I'm gonna show you a map and then I'm gonna watch walk you through some slides, some quick slides, getting your accurate timeline, and then I'll come back. So here's a quick map. Uh, so we have sort of like a general idea of what what took place and where the ship is. Uh, like I told you, it did dock in the Canary Islands of Spain uh yesterday, Sunday. Uh so like I said, April 1st, if you remember the timeline on those articles that I showed you, it left Argentina. And then on April the 11th, the Dutch passenger died. He was the first casualty. This is when the alarm bells weren't really going off. The world didn't know anything about it. But when we got to April the 24th, the wife of the deceased flown from St. Helens to South Africa. She died two days later. And and then the alarm started going up. The media started paying attention. By May 3rd through the 6th, uh, the ship was anchored off Cape Vernon, and a German woman died on the ship. And that's when it was just they went full blown at that point. And that ship stayed there up until basically yesterday when it got to the Canary I Islands, which was yesterday, May the 10th, and people are getting off to get treatment. So let's now look at the slides or the uh video, and it will give you a detailed explanation of each point of the ship's travel, and I will come back with my final comment. So now we have a great idea of what the timeline was with the travel of this uh cruise ship or adventure ship or expedition ship, whatever you want to call it. And we got a good understanding of all the confusion, the education, and how the media was covering it. And here's just I again I said that out my focus is on the Canadians, so I've done sort of like a little summary at the bottom of this uh article here. So the city news, uh remaining Canadians on the cruise ship at the center of uh the outbreak, the disembark. So the Canadian count appears to be four Canadians still connected to the ship, final disembark yesterday. But two Canadian former passengers already home and isolating. We already talked about one additional uh Canadian that was not part of the cruise ship is in Quebec isolation. And there's no public reports that I found uh that says any Canadian has tested positive or showing any symptoms whatsoever. And that's and that's a good thing. Now, this is not just a cruise ship scary story. It's not COVID. It is a reminder that even a rare disease can become a global concern when traveling. Delayed symptoms and international movement sort of collide. For Canadians, the question is now whether the people isolating in isolation in Ontario, Quebec remain healthy and whether the public health official can close basically a file on this issue. Um, so we gotta be careful when we're traveling. We gotta be careful not to overreact. We gotta be careful not to send out misinformation, especially on issues like this. And this is not COVID. And COVID was a lot more dangerous, it killed a lot more people, thousands of people, and there was a lot of misinformation. And I was hoping that we'd all we'd learn something from that uhwise, uh, but it seems at least the media has it, but maybe they're just looking for the next big outbreak to cover and cover it early, uh, because they were late to covering the one for COVID at the beginning, if you remember. And there was again uh just a lot of confusion. There's a lot of confusion on this ship, a lot of confusion outside the ship. So uh let me know your your thoughts and comments regarding this whole incident and uh the episode. Um, I'd like to hear what you think and what you uh what you see happening, uh especially with the media when they're covering this kind of story. I hope I uh clear things up and made it as simple as I can so that you have a clear understanding and just assume your comments and I will reply. If you enjoy these uh news summaries that I put out every week and you find them informative, please be sure to subscribe and give me a thumbs up. It really helps the channel. You can also catch all my episodes on my podcast up here, and you can find my podcast and YouTube music. Thanks for watching. Be safe, and we'll see you on the next one.