90-Second Read: What Do We Know About How Hantavirus Spreads?

Andes virus is the only Hantavirus that can spread human-to-human Experts are relying heavily on a paper about superspreader events in Argentina to understand transmission dynamics of the Andes virus at the center of the Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak. About 82 healthcare workers were exposed to symptomatic patients with confirmed Andes virus infection at one hospital. Andes virus is the only known Hantavirus to be able to transmit human-to-human. Some experts have been pushing to acknowledge that airborne transmission is likely in this case.

However, he and his team conducted a modeling study of transmission aboard the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that had one of the earliest outbreaks of COVID-19. Other Americans who returned from the ship in April have been advised to effectively quarantine at home and are being monitored on a regular basis by state public health departments. Nonetheless, it could happen if people being monitored at home develop symptoms and, like in the Argentina outbreak, spread it to others early on in their illness. They determined that 90% of spread occurred through aerosols, not contaminated surfaces, he wrote.

In that paper, published in 2020 in the New England Journal of Medicine ( NEJM ), spread was driven by three symptomatic people who attended crowded social events. Now, he doesn't want public health officials to be slow on the uptake once again. Only a small number of the 45 people who worked in the intensive care unit and emergency department used any form of personal protective equipment while they were in direct contact with patients -- suggesting there's less transmission risk in the later stages of disease. There's also little chance that this current outbreak will pose any risk of infection to the public.

The spouse of the index patient had a fever while she attended his wake, and 10 people who attended that wake and were in close contact with her became sick. Another patient likely infected six others during the early phase of his illness because of his active social life, the researchers reported. Interestingly, there were no nosocomial infections among healthcare workers who had been in direct or close contact with the patients.