90-Second Read: Why experts say Hantavirus isn’t ‘COVID-19: The Sequel.’ Four facts to calm your nerves

Why experts say Hantavirus isn't 'COVID-19: The Sequel.' Four facts to calm your nerves Is news of a Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak giving you COVID-19 flashbacks? But infectious disease experts say the Hantavirus outbreak first confirmed on the MV Hondius cruise ship in May is much different than what the world experienced with coronavirus. Unlike COVID-19 or influenza, Hantavirus doesn't spread easily among people. Although Hantavirus' mortality rate is quite high, close to 40% for some strains, there is not evidence it easily spreads or mutates, making it more likely that the public health response can keep pace to reduce further spread. Video below: American passengers exposed to Hantavirus have the option to leave quarantine Hantavirus typically spreads among rodents like rats and mice.

Although epidemiologists are still investigating the origins of the cruise ship's outbreak, the World Health Organization said a passenger aboard the ship likely acquired it while visiting the country prior to boarding. Whereas COVID-19 and flu viruses replicate in the lungs and can reach very high concentrations in respiratory secretions, making them easy to pass along, Hantavirus "principally resides in the blood vessels," said Dr. Even armed with facts, it can be hard to ward off the anxiety of another global health episode like the COVID-19 pandemic. It's hard not to think back to early 2020, when a few cases around the world quickly snowballed into a global pandemic. That's pretty extraordinary from the perspective of viral dynamics or viral biology." Flu and COVID-19, meanwhile, are prone to mutation, keeping.

Part of why COVID-19 was so hard to contain was that people were contagious even when they showed no symptoms. Although it is possible there is some asymptomatic Hantavirus spread that researchers haven't yet detected, evidence so far shows the virus transmits only when people are actively symptomatic. All viruses have the ability to mutate, but there is some reassuring evidence that the Hantavirus is relatively stable. Both facilities have a strong history in having cared for people with exotic infections such as Ebola." Experts advise closing your web browser, checking in with a trusted news source once a day and engaging with other people, but not about the virus. In those reports of human-to-human spread that we have, it's usually prolonged, close or even intimate contact that allows transmission,".

I think being this close to a pandemic of the proportion with COVID and the ways that it changed life makes it very hard to see these new things emerge and be logical. But he was relieved when he learned it was a Hantavirus. William Schaffner, an infectious disease doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It cannot circulate kind of in a subterranean mode in a community, going from one person to another, as COVID can. One patient in Atlanta is experiencing symptoms, and one patient in Nebraska has tested positive but is not experiencing symptoms, health officials said.