Concerns grow over Hantavirus as 5 U.S. States monitoring passengers from cruise ship

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Well, five states and at least a dozen countries are monitoring passengers from a contaminated cruise ship. The viral outbreak of the Haunt virus has already killed three passengers as health officials confirm the virus on the ship is a rare strain that is transmissible from person to person. So joining us now to learn more about this is Dr. Adil But infectious disease expert at Hackinack Meridian Health. Um thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it. We need uh experts like you to tell us more about this and I think that's because the question on a lot of minds is could this be the next co is this happening again?

[00:00:38]What is the likelihood this virus and the outbreak of it could lead to another pandemic in your opinion?

[00:00:45]>> Good morning and thank you. We need to remember that this is a very different virus than the co virus. We have known this virus for at least three decades when it was first discovered in the late '7s. It is spread differently than COVID and the incidence of the disease is quite low globally. While it can cause severe disease, the likelihood of it becoming very transmissible is is extremely low. So generally the experts uh globally agree that it turning into CO is extremely unlikely.

[00:01:14]>> And you say it spreads differently from CO. How exactly is that? So how is it spread and what makes this particular strain so unique? So there are two modes of spread. One is uh which is the more common one is through rodents like deer mice and people can get infected when they clean uh excretita of the rodents like the like rat droppings or rat urine. When you go into atticss or sheds and clean that it can be aerosolized and transmitted to humans. Now humanto human transmission is extremely rare and is limited to only one strain of the virus which unfortunately is the one that we saw on that cruise ship that is called the Andrain and that is seen predominantly or almost only in South America. Uh so so we generally don't see that strain in the US. So the chance of human to human transmission is extremely low which made COVID a global pandemic very quickly.

[00:02:12]What are the symptoms typically associated with this rare uh humanto human strain of the virus?

[00:02:20]>> Generally ha virus can cause two different types of syndromes. What we are more commonly familiar with is what we call the pulmonary syndrome or the pneumonia that it causes. It can cause a very severe pneumonia which starts with fever, severe muscle pains and body pains and over a period of days to weeks can it can develop into severe shortness of breath and respiratory failure. The mortality if that develops is is very high with this virus. The other type of disease it it causes is what we call the hemorrhagic fever. Think of it as Ebola and COVID. So the the hemorrhagic fever is like Ebola where people get a lot of bleeding from all different sites. We don't see that in the US. The other one is like COVID causes very severe pneumonia which is what the pulmonary syndrome is what we're looking at. So, I'm sure there are folks maybe who have booked cruises or have booked international travel in the coming weeks and months and are worried that maybe this situation on this cruise ship will impact what their plans are to do or should impact. Are there any precautions the general public should take and should they avoid travel? Are we at that point or close to it?

[00:03:35]>> One has to put this entire thing into its context. Remember we have only had three deaths and very few number of cases on an isolated cruise ship. The chance of other things that happen on cruise ships for example norovirus diaral outbreaks are much more likely. I don't think and public health experts do not think that this is a major gamechanger in terms of changing your travel plans at this point in time.

[00:03:58]However, we need to continue to monitor this very closely. If that spreads to other cruise ships, then of course one would worry about but at this point in time it does not seem like one needs to change their plans. However, common sense precautions are always uh uh necessary that if someone has fever or respiratory symptoms, they should see a doctor before they embark on a cruise or any travel for that matter.

[00:04:21]>> Good advice. Uh Dr. Adilbut, infectious disease expert at Hackinac Meridian Health. Uh thank you so much. We appreciate your time and the information that you helped provide our audience.