Hantavirus nearly killed me

It’s just over six weeks since the ship, MV Hondius, left Argentina for a cruise visiting remote islands in the South Atlantic. A month later, three passengers had died. The World Health Organisation identified the probable cause as hantavirus – a rodent-borne disease that the victims most likely contracted in south America.

In our conversations, we bring together Christian in Germany and Lorne in Canada to share their experiences of the virus and their own brush with death.

“My heart failed, and I apparently died for 11 minutes,” Lorne tells host James Reynolds. “The degree of sickness and illness that I went through was hell on Earth…it was torture.”

This week, the final tourists were evacuated from the cruise ship. Eight people are being treated for hantavirus and other passengers being monitored in quarantine at several locations around the world. We also bring together three experts to discuss how the disease spreads, its prevention and treatment.

Presenter: James Reynolds
BBC producer: Lindsay Brown
Boffin Media producer: Richard Hollingham
Editors: Arja Haikonen and Harriet Oliver
A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC World Service Outside Source team

(Photo: Lorne, who survived Hantavirus)