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- Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents that can cause severe disease in humans.
- People usually get infected through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.
- Infection with hantaviruses can cause a range of illnesses, including severe disease and death.
- In the Americas, hantaviruses can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a severe respiratory illness, with a case fatality rate up to 50 per cent.
- Andes virus, found in South America, is a currently known hantavirus for which limited human‑to‑human transmission among contacts has been documented.
- In Europe and Asia, hantaviruses cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).
Addressing disinformation circulating on social media, Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme stressed that there are no signs this is the early stages of a pandemic.
Infection has occurred in a confined setting involving prolonged close contact among passengers aboard the ship, similar to a limited Andes hantavirus outbreak recorded in Argentina in 2018–2019. In that case, transmission was linked to a social gathering involving a symptomatic individual and resulted in only a small number of cases.
Dr. Mahamud said existing public health measures, including contact tracing, isolation and monitoring, are well understood and can effectively break chains of transmission, making a large-scale epidemic unlikely.
