Hantavirus - Should you be worried?

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]I don't know if you've been watching the news lately, but there have been a lot of stories about a Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship out in the Atlantic Ocean.

[00:00:08]Uh, there's been several deaths, several serious infections, and the question everybody asks is is Hantavirus going to be the next global pandemic that kills everyone? I think we may be able to talk about it.

[00:00:22]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Jones from the Homegrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine.

[00:00:44]And I wanted to I've been getting a lot of questions about the Hantavirus, and so I wanted to talk about it a little bit. Um, so the Hantavirus is an RNA enveloped virus, uh, and it's almost always transmitted through the stools or the feces or the urine or even the saliva of infected rodents, particularly mice and rats, and that's how humans get it.

[00:01:10]Um, there is a subvariant in South America called the Andes virus, which has mutated and can now be transferred from one human to another.

[00:01:21]Uh, the typical Hantavirus that we see in North America and other parts of the world is not transmissible from human to human, but the Andes virus, the Andes variant of that virus is.

[00:01:34]And there was a case here in the last week or so of a cruise ship of a outbreak of Hantavirus, and they've tracked down the patient zero, and when epidemiologists talk about patient zero, they're talking about the first person that had it, right, where it came from. And it was a couple that was traveling in South America as tourists, they traveled all over South America and Argentina especially.

[00:02:01]And then they got on a cruise ship and you know, into the cruise got very, very sick, the gentleman did, and was diagnosed with hantavirus.

[00:02:15]And shortly after that, other people on the ship were diagnosed with hantavirus and there were several deaths among those people.

[00:02:25]Hantavirus has a very, very high mortality rate. Um the good news is that the if there can be good news in a scenario like that, uh the good news is that hantavirus is difficult to transmit from human to human. Even though it can be transmitted, it takes fairly intimate contact. I mean, you have to be like very close in proximity uh or using that person's spoon, you know, or kissing that person. Or really, I mean, we're talking about close proximity. Of course, cruise ships are sort of notorious for close proximity, you know. So, if a fellow coughs all over his hand and then grabs a doorknob and goes through and the next guy grabs a doorknob and scratches the inside of his nose, you can transmit that way. But it takes pretty close, immediate proximity. And like I said, has pretty high mortality rates. It usually starts out with some digestive issues, you know, diarrhea, cramping, gut issues, and then turns into a respiratory thing.

[00:03:29]And once it turns into a respiratory thing, those folks are in really big trouble. I mean, they they often die uh pretty quickly from that infection. Now, the all that said, because of the complexity of the transmission from human to human, the intimacy that's required, this isn't something like influenza would be or like COVID-19 was where you know, if you're sitting in a restaurant and the guy two tables over is coughing, that you're going to catch it from him. That's not very likely.

[00:04:05]Okay.

[00:04:06]Uh and so it's not likely to become a fast-spreading pandemic kind of situation. That said, the incubation time, which is from the period of infection until you start being able to have signs of the disease and transmit the disease, the incubation's about 6 weeks. So, that's a problem, you know, and if if this hadn't been a long cruise going all the way across the Atlantic, uh it could have been that several people were infected and then moved to, you know, five different countries and got several other people infected uh because of the long incubation times.

[00:04:42]But, even in that scenario, once it's identified and you talk to the CDC guys about everybody you've talked to in the last week, it's pretty easy to shut it down because, like I said, it has to be people you're pretty closely connected to.

[00:04:56]Now, that's all for the Andes virus.

[00:04:59]And so, you know, my my verdict on that is, no, it's not going to be a pandemic and you don't need to be anxious and worried and and, you know, scared that we're going to be going through the COVID thing again with a much more dangerous virus. But, I do want to talk about the mouse-to-human transmission version, the Hantavirus, the normal Hantavirus, what we'd call the normal one, the common one.

[00:05:24]Uh cuz that actually is a pretty significant threat under the right circumstances.

[00:05:30]And so, I wanted to talk about that a little bit.

[00:05:32]So, the way that that virus is transmitted, like I said, is from the feces or the urine or the saliva of mice and rats. And so, well, how do humans get exposed to that? Well, usually it's when they're cleaning up the feces and urine of mice and rats.

[00:05:50]Okay. It could happen from a bite or if you're French kissing a mouse or a rat, you could get enough saliva to be infected. Don't don't French kiss mice and rats. But mostly it's the feces and the urine. And so what happens is people are cleaning up a mess in old storeroom or whatever, a basement and they [music] get sweeping up the mouse poop and that makes dust that's now infectious gets into the lungs and they get hantavirus.

[00:06:19]>> [music] >> I have a family member, dearly loved cousin of my wife.

[00:06:25]A young, strong, healthy guy had a wife and several cute little kids. He was a high school teacher, just the nicest, best guy in the world.

[00:06:36]>> [music] >> Um and he was volunteering at the school and they were cleaning out an old storage room and it was really dirty and dusty and gross and lots of mice had been in there and they were sweeping it up and cleaning it up and he got hantavirus and he died.

[00:06:51]In Wyoming.

[00:06:53]Okay. And so you don't have to be in some exotic far-off place. This is a a virus that exists in North America in civilized places where mice poop.

[00:07:05]And so just be aware of that. So what do you do? Well you have to clean up messes like that but it's very important that if you have mouse droppings or mouse urine or if you suspect mouse activity at all in an area that you're careful about how you clean up that mess. And basically you have to do things that prevent the dust. So you need water.

[00:07:32]You need water and you need some protection. So I would get an X95 dust mask and that's the really high-end mask and fit really tightly to your face.

[00:07:43]Sure, those prevent aerosols and dust from getting into you. That's what you want, an N95 mask. Or there's also an XN95, but you know, that style of mask.

[00:07:52]Put it on real tight and wear some eye protection, too.

[00:07:56]And wear some gloves, so you don't stick your finger in your mouth later.

[00:08:00]And then and then clean it up with water. Use a mop to clean it up. Don't use a broom and make all the dust. Use a damp mop or wet towels or something to clean up that mess and get rid of it.

[00:08:12]>> [music] >> And then it's That's the safe way to deal with it. You know, if you're in that scenario, you know what to do and how to clean it up safely so you don't get infected with that aerosolized powdered virus particles.

[00:08:23]Um and like I said, that can happen all over civilized countries.

[00:08:29]You know, all over especially the western states United States seem to have a little more of it than the eastern United United States.

[00:08:35]>> [music] >> Uh but still, it can happen anywhere.

[00:08:38]Um so, if you have mouse poop to clean up, do it carefully. Or rat poop.

[00:08:43]Uh do it carefully and do it right with some water.

[00:08:46]So, what about herbs? Is there a magic herb that'll kill hantavirus? Well, no, there's not that we know of.

[00:08:51]Uh there's been very very very little research on hantavirus and medicinal plants. Um they have done some very preliminary research, in vitro stuff.

[00:09:06]And they've done a few mouse tests, infecting the mice with it and then giving them herb extracts. And And there are some things uh that can help, maybe.

[00:09:17]But they haven't done any human trials, so we don't have any real data. So, don't you know, don't assume that these plants I'm telling you that oh, if I get hantavirus, I'll just take a little of this and I'll be fine. No, if you think you've got hantavirus, go to the hospital and get quarantined [music] so you don't you know, infect others if it's the Andes version.

[00:09:36]Or get really serious medical attention cuz you might crash really fast. But, the herbs that have promise, maybe if it's the apocalypse you don't have an ER you can run to, are herbs like licorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra, uh has some polyphenols that inhibited the virus in vitro, in in test tubes with cell cultures, not in humans that were coughing. All right? Artemisia annua, sweet wormwood, early preliminary maybe research, elderberry, uh has some activity against enveloped RNA viruses, you know, and other viruses that are similar to hantavirus.

[00:10:17]Maybe that's a good one. And then, you know, immune-supporting herbs like olive leaf and uh astragalus and echinacea things like that might help the immune system fight it off. But, again, we have zero information on that. So, don't assume that you know, those are going to be your go-to herbs to kill that particular virus. They could be your go-to herbs for killing lots and lots of other viruses, uh like corona, like influenza, like respiratory syncytial viruses, all of whom have some similarities to the hantavirus. Also, beans, uh carrots, uh things in those two families have some nutrients that help to inhibit the virus. So, you know, you should be eating all that stuff anyway. Eat stuff that's good for you.

[00:11:04]Uh and be careful how you clean things up.

[00:11:08]Mostly that's the issue.

[00:11:10]Hantavirus isn't something w- that I'm going to treat as an herbalist unless it's the apocalypse and I have no other options, you know? And then I'll try things that might work [music] cuz I read a study that might have some bearing, maybe. You understand what I'm saying?

[00:11:27]What I will say is be very, very careful to not get exposed and to clean up mouse and rat feces and urine carefully and your risk of exposure is very minimal.

[00:11:40]So, I'm Dr. Patrick Jones.

[00:11:42]>> [music] >> Uh appreciate you watching. If this information seems valuable to you, I'd appreciate it if you'd click the subscribe and the like button and mostly the share button uh so other folks kind of know what the real risks are. Like I said, the Andes version um has never been reported in North America locally. I mean, there's there was a case of somebody that came into North America with it once.

[00:12:06]Um but it was immediately controlled and resolved because like I say, it's not a virus that spreads super quickly to general populations. So, I don't think you need to lose any sleep over the poor folks in uh the cruise ship. Uh prayers for those guys and their families, certainly.

[00:12:24]But it's not a imminent threat to the welfare of the rest of the planet. I'm Dr. Patrick Jones from the Homegrown Herbal School of Botanical Medicine.

[00:12:32]Thanks for watching.

[00:12:35]>> [music] [music] [music]