What we know about the hantavirus cruise outbreak and confirmed U.S. case

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:04]Now to the latest in the deadly hentto virus outbreak that turned an Atlantic cruise ship into a nightmare. Officials confirming an American has tested positive and there's growing questions about the CDC's role in containing the outbreak. In recent interviews, the acting CDC director and a former CDC director giving conflicting messages.

[00:00:25]But it is atypical to have so much quiet from CDC and and you know really letting an other organization be the voice um that Americans are listening to.

[00:00:34]>> This is not CO uh Jake and we don't want to treat it like CO we want to don't want to cause a public panic over this.

[00:00:40]We want to treat it with a havirus protocols that we that again were successful in containing outbreaks in the past. They didn't see what the CD's been doing CDC has been doing. Right. So we are in touch with the WHO. were in touch with the uh the the international organiza uh international health organizations >> and joining me this morning is Dr. Dean Blumbberg with UC Davis Health. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. A lot of questions right now especially when we're talking about a virus outbreak. People think directly CO 19 and the pandemic. So how is this different? Should people be concerned?

[00:01:15]>> I think people should be aware of it.

[00:01:17]But the risk of transmission, the risk of an outbreak is basically zero. And the risk of transmission is very low unless you have prolonged intimate contact with somebody who's infectious.

[00:01:27]>> So how is the transmission for hunto virus different from covid 19?

[00:01:32]>> So from covid remember we were doing all that social distancing keeping our our distance from people just being within 3 ft of people for a brief period of time could result in transmission of covid.

[00:01:44]With haunt virus it's prolonged intimate contact. And so that's like a couple who's sleeping together or a nurse who's taking care of a patient for several days. So that's how how more infectious CO is compared to haunt virus.

[00:01:57]>> So would this mean it is more difficult maybe from persontoperson contact to get hunto virus versus co 19?

[00:02:04]>> Exactly. It's very easy to transmit co much more difficult to transmit um hunto virus.

[00:02:10]>> So should people be worried right now about the risk level and also traveling?

[00:02:15]It's summer. A lot of people have cruises, a lot of air travel. Should people be concerned?

[00:02:20]>> So, the thing about the cruise ship is it's going to amplify any kind of infection. This was a unique case in that the people who had haunt virus, the only transmittable human to human trans transmittable case of haunt virus were on this cruise ship. So, if you're traveling to other areas of the world where this haunt virus isn't located, there's no risk of transmission on a cruise ship. traveled to the Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska, Europe, there's no transmission in those areas.

[00:02:47]>> Perfect. So, for now, people should not be that concerned. What would you say the risk level is right now?

[00:02:52]>> It's extraordinarily low unless you have direct prolonged intimate contact with one of these cases that we already know about and public health, the California Department of Public Health and local public health in California know each of these exposed patients and they are being monitored.

[00:03:08]>> Is there maybe a risk of a pandemic?

[00:03:10]That's something that people might be wondering right now.

[00:03:13]>> Not at all. With COVID, you had um two to four people who were infected for every one case of co COVID. And that's why you could have an explosive outbreak, a pandemic. With haunt virus, it's less than one per person. So any kind of transmission chain is going to die out very quickly.

[00:03:30]>> Another question that we saw earlier last week was uh they were saying corona virus was new. We were studying it as it was happening. This is something that we have more information about. Is that true?

[00:03:42]>> Absolutely. So remember that co there were a bunch of mutations that had occurred in previous strains of corona virus and that resulted in basically a new strain. With this hont virus strain, it's already been sequenced by the World Health Organization. There are no dangerous new new mutations. This is the same old haunt virus that was being um infectious earlier in Argentina. So there's no no strain that no strain changes that result in it being more infectious.

[00:04:09]>> And as the weeks go by, what are the symptoms people should watch out for and when is it time to seek medical attention?

[00:04:15]>> Well, it starts off as fever, coughing, maybe some muscle aches, similar to other infections. But then there's very rapid onset of very severe pneumonia.

[00:04:25]And so this results in patients being extraordinarily short of breath. So, anybody who's having trouble breathing, being short of breath, go to the emergency department right away because you're going to need help.

[00:04:36]>> And one big question has been, we haven't heard a lot from the CDC and how this is being handled. From your perspective, should we be hearing a little bit more about this virus?

[00:04:44]There's lots of questions. Would that help, you know, calm people down and not create panic?

[00:04:49]>> It's always useful to have what we we usually get from the CDC, which is these health alerts from the health alert network. Um, and that's been missing currently. And so we we could use more involvement from the CDC. Usually they'd be on site helping with the investigation. And I think because there is short staffing at the CDC because of all the cuts um and temporary leadership, there's there's been a lack in that area.

[00:05:12]>> Yeah. But main message, not risk at all right now. People should not be concerned. Thank you so much doctor for being with us this