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Hello and welcome to News Air from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from London.

I'm James Menendez.

And we're going to begin today with the fate of those on board the Dutch cruise ship

that's been hit by an outbreak

of a deadly virus. The World Health Organization is saying that at this stage, the risk of a

wider outbreak is low. Three people on board the ship, the Hondias, have already died. Several

others have been infected. Three more patients were taken off the ship earlier today for a medical flight to

the Netherlands. It is currently anchored off the island of Cape Verde in the Atlantic, and the

ship's due to then head to the Canary Islands part of Spain. And that's caused something of a

political row there with the president of the Canary saying the Hondia shouldn't be allowed to dock there.

But in the past hour or so, the Spanish health minister, Monica Garcia, has said it will sail

to Tenerife and from there all those on board will be able to travel home.

Once the evacuation of the symptomatic people have taken place, the vessel will continue towards

the Canary Islands into a port that is a secondary port in the south of Tenerife. Once there,

there will be a mechanism to evacuate all the members who are there

to repatriate there. One man who is on board is currently being treated in hospital in Switzerland

after falling ill with the virus. He's been tested and health officials have now confirmed

that it is a strain of hanta virus which is normally spread by rats. This strain, however,

can be passed from human to human. I've been talking to the doctor who did that testing. She's

Dr. Isabella Eccler, who's head of the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases

...