90-Second Read: For Hantavirus, experts aim to inform without igniting COVID panic

Thrust back into the front line by a deadly Hantavirus outbreak, infectious disease experts have to balance informing the public about its potential risks without provoking undue fear of a COVID-scale pandemic. However some experts have also called on health authorities not to overstate what is known about Hantavirus while trying to tamp down pandemic fears. But that has not stopped conspiracy theories and disinformation about vaccines and Hantavirus spreading widely online, another echo of the COVID era. The deaths of three cruise ship passengers during a rare Hantavirus outbreak has sparked international alarm, and flashbacks to when the world tipped into a pandemic six years ago.

Unlike COVID, the Andes strain of Hantavirus is not new, and a few previous human-to-human transmission events have been studied. Research into a 2018 outbreak in the Argentina region of Patagonia, where the Andes strain is endemic, found that most cases were transmitted on the first day an infected person had a fever. There are no treatments or vaccines specifically targeted at Hantavirus. This is a "neglected tropical disease" and further research could reveal a longer or shorter incubation period, he said.

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. All the suspected infections have been among people who were onboard the ship, however several nations have quarantined those who were in contact with passengers. However a few people were found to have caught the virus from a man sitting more than a meter away at a birthday party. The fatality rate of the virus, commonly cited as around 40%, could also be quite different outside of rural areas of Argentina where there may be little health infrastructure, Flahault added.