All Your Hantavirus Questions, Answered by an Infectious Disease Specialist

Now that’s more 100 passengers a hantavirus– The most advanced ship have been transferredwith 18 Americans in biocontainment units in Nebraska and Georgia, health officials around the world are trying to track more than a dozen people who left the trip and anyone who may have come in contact with them.

So far, all 11 of the reported hantavirus cases are among passengers or crew members, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. press conference in Madrid on Tuesday. This includes three deaths from the virus.

In most cases, hantaviruses are spread when contaminated rodent droppings and urine are blown into the air and inhaled. Hondiusit is known as the Andes virus, and it is the only type known to be transmitted from person to person. Although the virus can cause serious illness and high birth rates, health officials say the spread of hantavirus is unlikely to become a global problem like the Covid-19 pandemic.

“At the moment, there is no indication that we are seeing the beginning of a major epidemic,” said Ghebreyesus, “but the reality is that things can change and, due to the long duration of the virus, it is possible that we will see more cases in the coming weeks.”

WIRED spoke with Nicole Iovine, a senior epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Florida Health, about how the Andes virus spreads and whether it could lead to another outbreak.

These interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

WIRED: One of the things that is probably on the mind of many people is how the Andes virus is similar to SARS-Cov-2, and how is it transmitted?

Nicole Iovine: It is not at all the same as SARS-Cov-2. This cruise ship explosion does not mean a global pandemic like Covid for several reasons. One of the reasons is that it is not as contagious as Covid. Covid has attacked our upper airways and inside our lungs. But because it affected our upper airways it meant that when we talked or sneezed or coughed, it was easily pushed up and it was easy to spread it. With the Andes virus, the virus spreads mainly through the lungs. It does not infect the surface, so it is very difficult to spread it from person to person.

How do you know if you have Andes virus? It seems that the symptoms are not obvious at first but they quickly progress to a serious illness.

People can have symptoms anywhere from five days or more after exposure to six weeks, which is also very different from Covid and another reason why hantavirus is a concern but not a pandemic. It starts with familiar symptoms. You may experience fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches and pains. These types of symptoms are common when you have the flu or many other illnesses.

Does the Andes virus travel by plane?

Not exactly, because the way it infects your lungs is if you are in close contact with someone for a long time. It’s not like measles, where if you’re in a room and you have measles, a person can come into the room two hours later and get measles. This is flying, but hantavirus is not.