90-Second Read: Should you be worried about Hantavirus? A Hopkins doctor shares insights

A Hopkins doctor shared insights on Hantavirus as two Marylanders are being monitored for potential exposure. A doctor with Johns Hopkins Medicine shared some insights on the spread of Hantavirus. That's not at all the case with the Andes Hantavirus." | DATA TEAM : Here's how many past Hantavirus cases were reported in the US Sood said most infections happen with close personal contact like a household, a party or, in this case, a cruise ship. It comes a day after Maryland health department officials said they're monitoring two Marylanders who were possibly exposed to a cruise passenger. The Andes strain is the only one of those strains where we've seen human-to-human transmission." The Andes strain of Hantavirus is at the center of the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius cruise.

Three people have died out of the roughly 11 cases reported by the World Health Organization. What to know about the outbreak "If they stayed longer on the ship, the situation could have been difficult," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO. Sood said quarantine, which could last up to 42 days with Hantavirus, is really only necessary if the virus is highly transmissible. All passengers have since returned home, including the roughly 18 American passengers. We know about the transmission of Andes virus mostly through reports from South America where we've seen it.

Hantavirus is a virus that's distributed throughout the world, and that there are multiple different strains," said Dr. He said citizens of the countries passengers are returning to should know "there is nothing to fear, the risk is low, this is not another COVID." Despite the limited data from the past, Sood agreed with the WHO. If we start seeing secondary spread, if we start seeing people who were exposed outside of the cruise ship or who were not exposed to the cruise ship at that point, that would be concerning. But I'm not expecting that to happen." Sood said Hantavirus is contracted through rodent or mouse excretions. So, we don't have a huge number of outbreaks or a huge number of data points to be able to say exactly.

What we do know is that it doesn't transmit the way something like measles does, where if you walk into a room where somebody with measles was, even an hour after they were there, you can still get infected. So, you can imagine that they're probably eating together, there's probably a fair amount of contact," Sood told WBAL-TV 11 News. Given the long incubation period, we're right at the time where we're going to be identifying cases. So, I think that over the next week or even a few weeks, we may actually see even more cases. She said if you do come into contact with excretions, wash your hands thoroughly and wear a mask to reduce the risk of infection.