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The latest on the hantavirus outbreak—and if it could impact NC.
By Heidi Reid & Erin Weeks
After a rare and deadly hantavirus outbreak on Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius left three dead and at least eight more infected or suspected to be, panic ensued across the internet—and when all passengers were evacuated from the ship and sent back to their home countries, the hysteria doubled.
With COVID-19 barely in the rearview mirror, online chatter is stirring up new anxieties about a 2020-scale lockdown. But this time, the virus has a much higher mortality rate—as high as 50% in the Americas. The stats are scary, but does the virus pose a real threat to NC?
In actuality, the situation isn’t as fearsome as your TikTok feed may be suggesting—yet.
Infectious Disease Specialist and Assistant Professor at Duke Dr. Nicholas Turner told RM no individuals from the infected ship are set to arrive here, and emphasized that spread to the broader public is unlikely.
“Almost all known human-to-human transmission events occurred among individuals who live together or directly cared for sick individuals,” notes Turner. “That means spread within close confines—like on a ship—can certainly occur, but spread to the broader public is unlikely.”
This specific strand of hantavirus, the Andes virus, is the only hantavirus documented to occasionally transmit between people. But even the Andes strain is not efficient at jumping from host to host. Data suggests transmission requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already showing signs of infection.
To wit, there is no vaccine for hantavirus as of right now, and that’s in part due to how rare infection is, with just ~30 cases in the U.S. annually.
“There have been fewer than 1,000 total cases in the U.S. since reporting began in the 1990s,” emphasizes Turner. “While public health agencies will be tracking the cases and direct contacts who returned to the U.S. very closely, we do not anticipate we’ll see much, if any, ongoing spread in the U.S.” Unless you’ve had direct contact with an affected traveler, there’s no need to stress, adds Turner.
While there are no grounds for pandemic panic right now, it’s worth noting hantavirus is yet another infection that made the jump from animals to humans—just like Ebola, bird flu and COVID-19. Thanks to humans pushing deeper into wildlife habitats and climate change shifting where animals live, that number is expected to increase.
All told, even though North Carolina is expected to remain uninfected, tread lightly. Hopefully, hantavirus is nothing more than a warning that another pandemic is always possible.
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