Local infectious disease doctor says Hantavirus risk to public remains low
According to the World Health Organization, three people, including a married couple, died from the Andes strain of Hantavirus and several additional cases have been linked to the cruise ship.
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Health officials are still monitoring the Hantavirus and contact tracing people in several countries who debarked the MV Hondius cruise ship connected to the outbreak.
The ship departed Argentina en route to the Canary Islands with multiple stops along the way.
According to the World Health Organization, three people, including a married couple, died from the Andes strain of Hantavirus and several additional cases have been linked to the cruise ship.
However, there is concern that this small outbreak could become a global pandemic.
Dr. Diana Finkle, an infectious disease physician at University Hospital Newark and Associate Professor of Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is emphasizing that person-to-person spread of Hantavirus is extremely rare and nothing like the Covid-19 virus.
“Hantavirus is very different from the flu or covid or any other respiratory virus,” she said.
The WHO says hantavirus is typically transmitted by exposure to infected rodents, their urine, feces or saliva. Symptoms include flu-like fever, nausea, vomiting, acute respiratory distress, and shock.
"You still can’t get it with casual contact or in a crowded room," she said.
She continues to reassure that the overall risk to the public remains very low.
“You would have to have a history that fits the exposure profile basically. Or you have to be in really close contact with someone who was on that cruise," she said.
She adds that everyday activities do not place most people at risk of exposure and it's okay to travel.
“Generally going about your life, you would not be exposed currently with this outbreak here," she said.
