90-Second Read: Experts refute claims Hantavirus derived name from Hebrew for 'nonsense'

Covid-style misinformation continues to swirl online around a deadly outbreak of the rare Hantavirus aboard an Atlantic cruise ship, including false claims the name of the rodent-borne disease was der... Hantavirus was named after the Hantan River in South Korea, where the first major outbreak was recorded in the 1950s. In Indonesia, the health ministry said there were 256 suspected Hantavirus cases in several provinces from 2024 to 2026, with 23 cases of HFRS confirmed ( archived link ). Covid-era conspiracies resurged on social media following the global scare sparked by a Hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship from Argentina to Cape Verde (archived here and here ).

Similar claims that the supposed Hebrew origin of the name of the virus is evidence that the disease is fraudulent have spread in Australia, the Philippines and the United States, and in posts written in English, Japanese and Spanish. Moreover, several experts said "hanta" is not a Hebrew word, contrary to claims online. Although "relatively uncommon", some Hantavirus cases are associated with a high fatality rate, making the disease "a major public health concern", according to the WHO ( archived link ). Yaron Peleg, a professor on Modern Hebrew Studies at the University of Cambridge, told AFP in a June 2 email the word does not exist in the language ( archived link ).

Experts told AFP no such word exists in the Hebrew language. The video, which has racked up more than 200,000 views, also shows Dharma describing Hantavirus as " a global agenda " to sell vaccines -- echoing language he used in an earlier political event where he falsely suggested Covid-19 was a made-up pandemic. When contacted by AFP on June 4, he shared a screenshot appearing to show a Google AI Overview that says in Indonesian: "In modern Hebrew language, 'hanta' means nonsense, lies, or fraud." AFP conducted multiple keyword searches on Google, but none yielded similar results. In the Americas, infection has been known to lead to Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a rapidly progressive condition affecting the lungs and heart.

An AFP journalist whose native language is Hebrew noted the words for "nonsense" are "shtuyot", "qishqush" and the slang term "kharta" -- which could sound close to "hanta" but is still not the same word. Hantaviruses are generally known to cause two distinct illnesses. In Indonesia, the claims made by former politician Dharma were reshared on Instagram and TikTok.