I have been following the events related to a hantavirus outbreak that occurred on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, which caused several severe illnesses and at least three deaths.
Health officials in at least a dozen countries, including the U.S., are tracking dozens of passengers who traveled aboard the ship.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified it as a Level 3 emergency response, indicating a low risk to the general population. As of my last report, 18 Americans had been under close health official monitoring for 42 days to ensure they were not infected and did not pose a risk of spreading the Andes strain of hantavirus (the only strain capable of causing human-to-human transmission).
It must be noted that hantavirus infects 10,000 to 100,000 people each year. The cases occur in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. While worrisome for those aboard the ship, why all the angst?
And why are some public health officials bandying about the “6 foot” distance reference again, especially in light of all the COVID policy failures?
There could be a myriad of reasons, especially as the midterms are looming. However, it appears that not every expert is willing to gin up fear related to this particular pathogen.
“We know about it, but it’s not something to worry about. This is not the next pandemic,” said Dr. Scott Miscovich, an infectious disease expert.
Miscovich explained that Hantavirus, originating from infected rodents, isn’t a new disease. He said it’s more difficult to catch than COVID, and the virus also doesn’t mutate as frequently to create wild new variants.
While human-to-human transmission has been documented with the Andes strain, cases have remained relatively low.
“In the Americas, we’ve had over the last 15 years or so, I think it’s 893 cases. In Europe, annually, is anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 cases,” Dr. Miscovich said. “This has been around a long time. If it was going to take off, it had every opportunity to do so.”
Meanwhile, officials from Argentina and Chile are arguing about where Patient Zero, the Dutch ornithologist, became infected. Earlier reports indicated Leo Schilperoord was likely exposed at a garbage dump in Argentina that attracted rare birds.
But the Argentine health ministry said on Tuesday that the Dutch couple had not visited any of those areas during the days in which it is believed they got infected.The Andes species also exists in the Patagonian region in Chile, but the Chilean health ministry said in a statement that the Dutch couple had visited the country before the incubation period for the virus and ruled out that the contagion could have originated there.Federico Lada, a spokesman for the Argentine health ministry, rejected the claim, saying that infection in Chile remained a possibility. “It’s not true,” he said, referring to the Chilean health ministry’s statement.
As noted in previous reports, hantavirus has been known to be contracted in the U.S., and the country reports fewer than 30 cases annually. Interestingly, one new case of a locally acquired strain has been reported in New York state.
Ontario County is investigating a suspected case of locally acquired hantavirus, according to Kate Ott, the county’s public health director.Ott said New York state officials alerted her office Thursday morning to a potential hantavirus case in a patient who had been sick for a few weeks with mild symptoms, including fatigue, achiness and lethargy.”We thought surely this can’t be Hantavirus in relation to what’s going on in the media at this time,” Ott said, adding the case had “horrible timing.”
In the end, the more likely clock to run out first isn’t the CDC’s 42-day monitoring window…but the media’s attention span.
Absent a surge in secondary cases or clear evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, this story lacks the fuel needed to dominate headlines for six full weeks.
Hantavirus, particularly the Andes strain, is serious but very limited in its ability to spread, and the data simply do not support a pandemic-scale alarm.
As competing news cycles inevitably crowd in, the narrative will shift, the “six feet” chatter will fade, and the episode will quietly resolve into what it appears to be: a contained, closely watched incident rather than the next global crisis.
The virus may persist in rodents, but media panic has a much shorter incubation period and an even shorter lifespan.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY