Infectious disease specialist commends U.S. hantavirus response: "Very appropriate"

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Well, let's bring in infectious disease specialist, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong from UCSF. Great to be with you, Peter. US health officials maintain the risk to Americans from hantavirus still remains low. What do you make of the response so far?

[00:00:14]I think the response has been very appropriate, Liz. Uh in fact, it's it's very conservative and I think that's uh you know, right given so many unknowns so far and the risks uh to the general population, although low, there is still some risk of person-to-person transmission uh these passengers to the health care workers taking care of them transmission. So, things are being handled very delicately, very carefully.

[00:00:39]You know, there's this anxiety that's looming uh really across the world that hantavirus could become another pandemic like a COVID. Now, this virus, as you mentioned, can't be transmitted can be transmitted from human to human, but it is pretty rare. Can you explain how this virus spreads and how it works and how it's different from say the other viruses that we're more used to talking about like COVID and maybe the flu?

[00:01:02]>> Yeah, so I think a lot of people are worried because they remember COVID on a cruise ship coming in the early days, but there are many differences. First of all, we know about this virus. COVID was an unknown at that time and based on the most recent large outbreak in South Southern Argentina and Chile, we know that this virus really spreads when somebody's very symptomatic, when it's in that person's in close intimate contact with somebody else um and that's because the virus when symptomatic is really uh concentrated in the saliva and in the lungs. So, when you cough or when you uh you're in an intimate setting, you can spread it most efficiently.

[00:01:42]What does the treatment look like for hantavirus? We know there is no cure, but when you talk about treating the symptoms, can you take perhaps an antiviral if say you test positive for hantavirus? What are these patients probably going through if indeed they do test positive.

[00:01:57]Unfortunately, Liz, no good vaccine, no antiviral for hantavirus, and treatment is really around support, but that treatment is really important particularly because you can decline very quickly with hantavirus. So, because the virus affects the blood vessels that feed the lungs, it makes them very leaky, so the contents go straight into the air spaces. It's almost like a drowning. So, one of the big treatment paradigms is having a machine breathe for you, and that's called ECMO. So, that'll be one of the the treatment paradigms, and it can result in about 80% survival if somebody gets that early.

[00:02:38]And all these patients, these United States patients that were exposed, are in a hospital setting, so hopefully they'll be have that treatment accessible. I'm curious, Peter, the US withdrew from the WHO earlier this year, and many local and state federal health departments have either been downsized or reorganized.

[00:02:56]Are you concerned that that could have an impact on how the US responds to current and future outbreaks?

[00:03:03]Yes, I have a a lot of concerns, Liz.

[00:03:06]This is a very small number outbreak, and I think it really illustrates how interconnected we all are. The WHO is driving the response. The US is getting a lot of information from the WHO, and really need that cooperation. The analysis of the virus was done in South Africa, showing that it's not mutated from what we knew about this virus. You know, I there's been a 70% decline in funding, US contributions to global health in the last year alone. So, that'll really impact surveillance, biosecurity, biosafety, and outbreak control. So, if anything, I hope that this hantavirus outbreak shows that we really need to all work together.

[00:03:50]And when it comes to getting information on hantavirus, as we said, a lot of people are very scared about the outbreak of something like this. Where should they go? Is it the World Health Organization?

[00:04:00]Yes, it's the World Health Organization.

[00:04:02]The CDC is actually still pretty up-to-date on hantavirus. We have our own response. And then California and other states, their public health departments are still really giving some good information.

[00:04:17]Dr. Peter Chin Hong, always great to see you. Thanks so much.

[00:04:20]Same here, Liz. Thanks.