In keeping with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management, hantaviruses are a household of viruses that people can contract following contact with rodents, which regularly carry the virus, sometimes by inhaling particles from their dried saliva, urine, and droppings, like when sweeping a shed the place rodents have been residing.
Hantavirus infections are sometimes uncommon, with an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 circumstances per yr globally, however they can lead to extreme sickness and loss of life. Hantaviruses discovered within the Americas, often known as New World hantaviruses, could cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which presents with frequent signs like fever, fatigue, and muscle aches earlier than progressing to extra extreme results similar to shortness of breath and fluid within the lungs. HPS has a fatality price of 12 to 45 % relying on the pressure.
For variants extra frequent in Europe and Asia, often known as Outdated World hantaviruses, sufferers can develop hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which might trigger kidney failure and has a fatality price of 1 to fifteen %.
The pressure of hantavirus linked to the cruise ship seems to be what’s often known as the Andes pressure, which, per the CDC, is frequent in South America and has been linked to human-to-human transmission. Nonetheless, transmitting the hantavirus person-to-person is uncommon and sometimes requires shut contact in an enclosed area. The Washington Put up stories that Argentina, which seems to have a connection to this latest outbreak, has seen a rise of hantavirus circumstances lately and is regularly ranked by the WHO because the nation with the very best price of the virus in Latin America.
Hantavirus additionally has an extended incubation interval, with signs sometimes showing just a few weeks after an infection however typically so long as eight weeks after. On Thursday, Ghebreyesus stated throughout a briefing that it’s “doable” that extra circumstances may very well be reported down the road in consequence.
There may be at the moment no treatment nor broadly accessible vaccine for hantavirus — surviving extreme sickness attributable to the an infection requires immediate medical intervention and ICU remedy.
One of the distinguished circumstances of hantavirus emerged final yr after Betsy Arakawa, the spouse of famend actor Gene Hackman, was discovered to have contracted hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after the pair have been discovered useless of their New Mexico residence. Per the New York Instances, it’s believed that Arakawa was probably contaminated from publicity to deer mice, which generally carry the virus within the state. In 2025, three individuals in Mammoth Lakes, California, died after contracting hantavirus.
For much more details about hantavirus, infectious-disease professional and physician Céline Gounder has written a wonderful explainer right here.
