90-Second Read: Why Hantavirus is not the new Covid, according to experts

After the first cases of Covid in late 2019, it was referred to as the "novel coronavirus" because it was a brand new pathogen. Cases of Hantavirus are regularly recorded across the world, particularly in Asia and Europe. The Andes Hantavirus strain, which caused the recent outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, is the only one out of more than 30 species known to be able to transmit between humans. The exact number of people killed by Covid is difficult to determine, but the World Health Organization estimates it was at least 20 million. Humans almost always catch Hantavirus by being exposed to the saliva, urine or droppings of wild rodents.

Hantaviruses in the Americas such as Andes can cause severe respiratory and cardiac distress, as well as haemorrhagic fever. The Andes Hantavirus may be too rapidly fatal to spark a pandemic, explained biologist Raul Gonzalez Ittig of Argentina's scientific research agency Conicet. The Andes Hantavirus is thought to have a mortality rate of around 40 percent. It was first described among soldiers fighting in the Korean War in the early 1950s. Two of the three people who died in the latest outbreak travelled to Argentina before boarding the cruise ship.

This is vastly shorter than for Covid, which has an incubation period of seven to 10 days. Covid, on the other hand, "infects thousands of people and only later do deaths start to accumulate. That is why there is not as much chance of a Hantavirus pandemic." There are currently no treatments or vaccines specifically targeting Hantavirus, so doctors treat the symptoms it causes, such as breathing problems. There have been trials for vaccines targeting some Hantavirus strains, "but their effectiveness has not yet been proven against all Hantaviruses," French infectious disease specialist Vincent Ronin told AFP. The virus rapidly engulfed the world, sending countries into punishing lockdowns and crippling the global economy.

In comparison, Covid is solely a respiratory illness, and can cause fever, shortness of breath, body aches, fatigue and loss of smell. During the pandemic, new Covid treatments and vaccines were developed in record time. After being infected with Andes, it takes between one and six weeks for symptoms to appear. The last major outbreak in 2018 killed at least 11 people in Argentina, where the Andes species is endemic. Research into the 2018 outbreak found that the majority of transmission occurred on the first day the infected person showed symptoms.