Well, we're joined now for some expert commentary from Tampa Bay, Florida
by Christian Bresho, former head of the Institut Pasteur, the Medical Research Centre, of course
Christian, good to have you with us. Thank you for the invitation
So what are the chances that these people on board are infected
From what I understand, we might not know for a while because of the incubation period
Is that right? Yes, absolutely. The average of incubation period is about two weeks, but it can be up to six weeks
And hence the 42 days limit, which has been assigned by the authorities for different countries
But clearly the antivirus and this strain of antivirus is severe. And unfortunately, three people have died
But the transmission from human to human is rare and is not high
So in other words, it is still possible that some of these people can be infected
But overall, what we are witnessing now over the past few days is that the transmission is very low
So I really want to emphasize first that this is nothing like COVID-19
I mean we understand the fear of populations in Canary when the boat has disembarked all the passengers but there is no risk I mean the problem is more to understand how we can improve our process you see
and, of course, to follow up all these individuals out of precautions
And I think that what has been said makes a lot of sense
Yeah, you're right to point out the difference there. Obviously, seeing the kind of images we're seeing now
people might, you know, have flashbacks or think about COVID. But that awareness in some ways, you know, is good
because I imagine this time authorities are much more prepared for this kind of thing, are they not
Absolutely. And I think that it's fair to recognise that the WHO has been effective, you see
WHO has been very much criticised and it was logical, I mean, to criticise
It makes sense. But today, I think that their reaction has been meaningful
And as I said, I think that, again, out of precaution, what is being organized makes a lot of sense
I think that what it also points out for the future is, first, you cannot predict which virus will be at the origin of the next pandemic
pandemics, you see, there have been a lot of efforts of, I would say a few years ago, to try to predict which virus might come and so on
Well this is all very good but at the end of the day we cannot predict Nobody would have predicted about antivirus However what is important is the way we react as you said I mean you see surveillance and then handling the case
And in this context, to close, I just want to say that what we are lacking is to get more efficient diagnostic tests, you see
because what all these passengers are going to undergo, they are going, for example, in France to the Institut Pasteur
and they will be tested, which is very good. And then they can go back to their home and be isolated up to 42 days
However, we should have been able to have all the tests performed on the boat
you see, immediately. And now you have a lot of progress in science, in technology
And this is something I'm working for, the Global Advisor Network. We have very much advocated during COVID-19
We must reinforce the diagnostic procedures. But how would you test for people on a boat, which is, you know, the outbreaks just happened
Do you expect people just to have kind of testing kits on hand? How does that actually work
That's a good question. Well, first, I mean, honestly, we don't have these tests now
We should have them and we need to work on this. I'm referring to a lot of progress, but absolutely appreciate
that it still work to be performed Now you could imagine I mean to send a team on the boat with the diagnostic kits and to perform the tests you see You can imagine a lot of things Also I think that what would be
important for the future is to have isolation procedures, not only in countries which are
of high economic income, but also in countries with low economic or middle economic income
For example, on the coast of West Africa, well, we should have the possibility to deploy rapidly units for isolation
And so the boat would not have to spend, I don't know, he spent at least five days, you see, with the 147 passengers and the infected
In this case of antivirus, this has not been a problem because, again, the virus does not spread very rapidly
But let's imagine that that would be a virus with a very rapid spreading and massive spreading
That would be another story. So what I'm just telling is that in this case, we are safe
Unfortunately, three people have died. So this is very serious. We need to be serious
We need to follow up these people. This is not over. Absolutely not
However, we also need to take advantage of this to reinforce our procedures
All right. We have to leave it there, Christian Bresho. Points taken
Thank you very much. Sorry to cut you off there, but thank you very much for speaking to France 24 this afternoon