Hantavirus Facts

Hantaviruses are a deadly family of viruses spread primarily by infected wild rodents, such as deer mice, rats, and voles. Infected rodents are carriers only; they do not get sick or show symptoms.

Hantavirus infections in humans are rare in the United States. Since surveillance began in 1993, there have been a total of 890 reported cases nationwide. On average, the country records fewer than 30 to 40 cases annually, primarily isolated cases in western and southwestern states.

How Humans Contract Hantavirus

Infected rodents shed the virus in their urine, droppings and saliva, which settles onto the ground or other surfaces that come into contact with the rodents.

Humans can stir up contaminated dust by sweeping outbuildings or other enclosed spaces, or even trekking through a cave or old abandoned building in which infested rodents live. Breathing in this dust can cause infection. Less commonly, infection can occur through a rodent bite, or by touching your mouth or nose after handling contaminated materials.

All but one strain of Hantavirus cannot be transmitted person to person. The only strain of Hantavirus known to spread between humans is the Andes Hantavirus, native to South America. But even this one does so only rarely. When it does happen, it requires close, intimate or prolonged contact with an infected person who is already showing symptoms.

Incubation and Symptoms

Symptoms usually appear 1 to 8 weeks after exposure.

Early in the disease, symptoms include fatigue, fever, muscle aches, headaches and gastrointestinal issues. People may believe they just have the flu, and fail to seek treatment unless and until they get much sicker.

After the first few days, the patient begins coughing, and experiences shortness of breath due to fluid buildup in the lungs. The patient becomes seriously ill and needs hospitalization.

Some patients experience respiratory failure, which leads to death in up to 50% of the cases. Blood pressure can drop dangerously low.

Treatment

There is no cure or antiviral treatment for hantavirus. There is no vaccine in the United States. Treatment focuses on managing symptoms.

Patients in respiratory failure are placed in intensive care. Interventions include supplemental oxygen, mechanical ventilation or intubation. The most seriously ill patients may require a cardiopulmonary (heart-lung) bypass.

Certain strains of Hantaviruses found in Europe and Asia can lead to Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, which affects the kidneys and causes a high fever and internal bleeding.

Prevention

The best prevention is to eliminate rodent infestations in homes or other buildings, and around the farm. Seal gaps, cracks, holes and other entry points in your house or workplace. Set rodent traps in homes, garages, barns and sheds. Keep animal and human food sealed in rodent-proof containers. Remove woodpiles, brush, and debris from outdoor areas.

Before cleaning out enclosed structures, open the doors and windows, and air the space out for at least 30 minutes.

Never sweep or vacuum dried rodent droppings, as this stirs up the virus into the air. Instead, spray the area with a mixture of bleach or commercial disinfectant and water, let it soak for at least five minutes, then wipe it up.

Wear rubber, latex, or vinyl gloves, and an N95 disposable face mask while cleaning areas which have been infested by rodents.

Vaccine

There is no FDA-approved or widely available vaccine for hantaviruses in the United States or Europe.

The first hantavirus vaccine was developed in Asia in 1990, specifically for use against Hantaan River virus, which is transmitted by the striped field mouse. The Hantaan River virus is one of the most deadly forms of the virus, and so many people were infected and dying from the resultant Hemorrhagic Fever, that a vaccine became necessary. About two million doses of rodent brain or cell-culture derived vaccine are now given in China, South Korea and other Asian countries every year to protect against the Hantaan River virus, and some related variants, such as the Seoul (SEOV) Hantavirus. These vaccines are not effective against the strains prevalent in Europe or the Americas, and therefore not used outside of Asia.

The U.S. Army has researched various strains of hantavirus, and even conducted clinical trials, in hopes of creating a vaccine to protect soldiers against infection in foreign regions, but no usable vaccine has resulted from their efforts.

A few days after the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius reported a deadly outbreak of the Andes Hantavirus, an international team of scientists at the University of Bath announced they will develop a vaccine effective against that strain. It may take years, and it’s unlikely to be effective against Hantavirus strains in the US or Europe.

Outbreak on the Dutch Cruise Ship MV Hondius

On April 1, the MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina, carrying approximately 150 people.

On April 6, a Dutch passenger became ill with symptoms of fever, respiratory distress, and mild diarrhea. He died on April 11. The death was initially attributed to natural causes.

The body of the first victim and his symptomatic wife, plus other passengers, disembarked at Saint Helena island. The wife flew herself and her husband’s body to South Africa, where she died in a Johannesburg hospital after collapsing.

More passengers fell ill. Another woman died. Epidemiologists boarded the ship in Cape Verde, and tests confirmed the Andes virus strain.

It’s important to understand that the outbreak did not originate on the ship. Passengers boarding the ship in Argentina brought the virus with them. The incubation period lasts from 1 to 8 weeks, and infected passengers could easily show no symptoms of illness when they boarded the ship.

Conspiracies

Alarmists are spreading conspiracies all over social media. None of them are true. When will people learn that just because a random person makes a video, or a meme says it, doesn’t make it so? In some cases an excerpt is taken from a valid source, and a false narrative is built around a piece of info taken out of context. People fall for these easily because it came from a “legitimate source”.

Some conspiracies include:

• Plandemic & Bioweapon Claims: Some online influencers have labeled the outbreak as a “plandemic” or an intentionally released bioweapon, claiming it’s a plot orchestrated by globalists to force vaccines, coerce lockdowns, or manipulate upcoming election voting methods.
• The “Covid 2.0” Narrative: Many conspiracists are asserting that the outbreak was unleashed on the public by the same forces behind the Covid-19 pandemic to justify a second round of global restrictions.
• The Big Pharma Agenda: People are falsely claiming that the hantavirus is actually an adverse side effect of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines – never mind that hantavirus was first isolated in 1978, and has been monitored for decades. Others claim it’s been created to profit off of existing or “pre-prepared” hantavirus vaccines, which of course, don’t exist.



• 2022 “Predictive” Tweet After the confirmed hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship, the above tweet was drug out of the archives. Posted on June 11, 2022, by a user named “Soothsayer”, self-described as an “astrologist”, conspiracists are sharing the screenshot as proof that the outbreak was planned by authorities. Whoever Soothsayer is, they opened a Twitter account, posted four tweets, then disappeared. This means nothing. Experts explain that internet accounts often make hundreds of random, varied predictions. When one vaguely aligns with real-world news years later, it resurfaces as “proof,” while the hundreds of incorrect predictions are forgotten or deleted.
• Unproven Cures: Just as seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, random quacks are promoting the use of ivermectin as a miracle cure for Hantavirus. Don’t fall for the falsified “studies” that supposedly prove it’s effectivness.
• And many more. I’m not going to try to cover all of them!

Stop the Panic

The epidemiologist Katrine Wallace sums it up nicely:

That’s the part I think many people still misunderstand about modern health misinformation. It no longer behaves like a random collection of rumors. It behaves more like an infrastructure: a standing network of influencers, conspiracy accounts, partisan personalities, and monetized outrage pages that speak with authority, rapidly attaching themselves to any new outbreak or health scare. They spread misinformation, it goes viral, and then they monetize whatever potions they are selling at the link in their bio.

It’s not helping that news outlets are posting headlines like, “Deadly Hantavirus Outbreak”.

It’s true that passengers disembarked from the ship before the virus was identified. But authorities have tracked down those people, and have them self-isolating. They will be monitored closely until the incubation period is over. The chances of a pandemic are so close to zero, it’s not worth mentioning. It just isn’t going to happen.

Don’t share random memes and posts making unfounded claims. All it accomplishes is needless fear and panic. And think about it- how many times have conspiracies turned out to be nothing?

Those who are panicking that we are about to experience another pandemic à la Covid-19 will feel foolish when nothing happens. In my experience from watching these alarmist predictions that never materialize, most people will pretend they were never worried in the first place.

Above is the rodent-infested landfill in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, where authorities believe the outbreak originated. Several tourists who later boarded the ship had visited the site to take photos of birds.