The Truth About HantaVirus

The current spectacle in the news, concerning people from across the world over a potential second pandemic, is HantaVirus - also known as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. In the past, HantaVirus has been very insignificant: in the United States, there are around 20-50 cases each year, and since the CDC began tracking it, there have only been a few hundred cases. The reason for this is that HantaVirus usually can only be transmitted by close contact with rats and rat feces, and it is not contagious person-to-person.

In 1993, there was a famous HantaVirus outbreak in the "Four Corners" region of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, where seemingly healthy, young adults began rapidly dying from severe respiratory failure. Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control(CDC) and Prevention investigated and determined that deer mice were carrying a previously unidentified Hantavirus strain, spread through airborne particles from rodent feces. The strain became known as "Sin Nombre Virus", which translates to "Nameless Virus". Since then, doctors and scientists have studied Hantavirus extensively to recognize symptoms early, and public health agencies have created monitoring systems for the virus.

Why is everyone freaking out so much then?

A cruise ship going from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Antarctica had passengers begin to develop severe respiratory symptoms, and at least 3 died. Both confirmed and suspected cases disembarked the cruise ship rapidly and flew home across the world. The reason that this is getting so much media attention is that there is supposedly an "Andes" strain of HantaVirus that allows person-to-person transmission, which caused uninformed widespread panic. The mainstream media took advantage of the panic for views, but the truth is: there is no reason to worry.

Both the CDC and the World Health Organization have repeatedly stated that the general public health risk is low: the outbreak is being very closely monitored, and at this point, there is no potential evidence for a HantaVirus pandemic. A significant factor that allowed COVID-19 to spread so quickly was easy transmission and high contagiousness, which is something HantaVirus lacks. For the Andes strain of HantaVirus to spread from one person to another, it requires prolonged contact - in other words, it did not just spread to everyone in the airport.

The mainstream media often covers "news", not based on urgency or importance: but on what will make people watch or read. Do not forget to always fact check everything that you read on the news before forming an educated opinion.