The science behind hantavirus
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Following three deaths linked to the deadly hantavirus disease on a cruise ship this month, the scientific community is racing to answer the many unknown questions surrounding the outbreak.
Tom Whipple speaks to Dr Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Basel and co-founder of Pathoplexus, an online database of pathogen genomes, to explore what the new hantavirus genomic sequences can tell us.
He also hears from Dr Nicole Luri, Executive Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response from the NGO The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), to hear what steps would be taken if the hantavirus strain had the potential to become a pandemic, and how far their "100 days" mission has come.
With less than a month until the men’s football World Cup kicks off in the United States, Canada and Mexico, there are warnings from climate scientists that football’s global governing body FIFA needs to do more to combat the risks from the high temperatures both players and fans are expected to face. We speak to Dr Theodore Keeping from the World Weather Attribution team at Imperial College London to hear about the predicted conditions and the concerns they are raising.
Plus, mathematician Kit Yates from the University of Bath brings us his pick of the week’s science news you might have missed, including new hearing technology that might help you follow conversations in rowdy parties.
Presenter: Tom Whipple Producer: Alex Mansfield Editor: Ilan Goodman Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | On BBC Sounds, there are podcasts to help you look after your body and your mind. |
| 0:12.7 | From increasing your immunity to feeling more confident. |
| 0:16.6 | Or tips on how to focus. |
| 0:18.5 | Sorry, what will you say? |
| 0:19.7 | If it matters to you, it matters to us. |
| 0:22.6 | Feel good inside of them. |
| 0:24.3 | With What's Up Docks and Complex with Kimberly Wilson. |
| 0:27.9 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.5 | Hello, I'm Tom Whipple and welcome to Inside Science from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:36.8 | This week, do you like football? If so, what are the odds |
| 0:41.4 | this World Cup summer of sun-stopping play? How about a visit to the doctor? No, then maybe you can get |
| 0:49.2 | treatment via smart medical implants that release medication on demand. |
| 1:00.4 | And if you like cruises, then this has been a month of, shall we say, mixed news. |
| 1:07.4 | But amid all of the hantavirus uncertainty, what can we learn from the virus's genome? |
| 1:13.3 | All that and Kit Yates from Bath University is here to give his pick of the rest of the week's news. Kit, give us a teaser. Yeah, so this week we're going to be looking at sort of |
| 1:20.2 | mind reading. Mind reading. Excellent. Well, you'll have to read our minds as to what that is about |
| 1:26.2 | and wait until later in the show. |
| 1:28.9 | Before that, there is so much we still don't know about the deadly antivirus outbreak on a cruise ship this month. |
| 1:36.2 | How many were infected? How well does it spread? How well does it spread when you're not |
| 1:41.2 | locked together on a boat with a bunch of people sharing the same |
| 1:44.7 | breakfast buffet? And yet, in another sense, we already know everything we need. We already |
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