What to know about hantavirus: What is it? How common is it?

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]So there are some growing concerns about Hanza virus after an outbreak on that cruise ship. We have told you about a lot of people wondering could this really turn into the next pandemic and is there a vaccine to protect you against this? Dr. Jill Weatherhead is an associate professor of tropical medicine and diseases at UT Health Houston. Uh she joins us she joins us live this morning. Dr. Thanks for your time here on this Tuesday.

[00:00:21]>> Good morning.

[00:00:22]>> First and foremost, h virus for people who are not familiar with this. Can you explain to us how do people typically get infected with this?

[00:00:30]>> Okay.

[00:00:31]>> Yeah. So, h virus is a family of viruses that can affect humans depending on where they live geographically. So, there's different viruses in that family of ha viruses. Depending on where you live, those symptoms are a little bit different. Typically, it's from con contamination of rodent droppings, saliva or urine that gets brushed up into dust um in the air and you inhale it. That is the most common way people get it in um Asia as well as in North America and South America. However, there is one strain in South America called the Andes virus that has been shown rarely to be transmitted uh human to human, but that is very uncommon and the virus itself is very rare as well.

[00:01:20]Got >> it. How I was going to ask how common could you really get this virus? Just say if you are cleaning up an area with uh rat droppings or urine because we really haven't heard about this virus too often here.

[00:01:32]>> That's correct. It's a very rare virus here in the United States as well as in other areas around the world. Um, but it is really important if you are you are cleaning up a um infested area within your home or your garage or a shed to always protect yourself wearing gloves and wearing a mask in case there is some contamination from rodents in that area that could be aerosolized. But again, a very uncommon virus. And >> you referenced persontoerson uh spread. How is that common? And if so, how does that happen?

[00:02:05]>> No, it's actually very uncommon. It does not happen with the majority of HA viruses. It's actually only been proven to happen rarely in the Andes virus strain, which is uh only geographically located in South America in Argentina and Chile. So, the virus that we have here called Synre Synre virus uh actually doesn't spread human to human.

[00:02:28]the the one that you referenced in South America though, how does that spread human to human?

[00:02:32]>> Uh, same same concept. It's through um respiratory droplets.

[00:02:36]>> Got it. Okay. So, symptoms that maybe people should watch out for if they're concerned or potentially exposed to this.

[00:02:43]>> Yeah. So, it's actually very um generalized symptoms at first. Some fever, just not feeling well. You eventually develop gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea. And the part that is uh concerning about this virus is that the decline clinical decline is very rapid. So eventually you develop uh pneumonia and respiratory uh depression very quickly.

[00:03:06]>> So the the big question that everybody wants to know obviously two-part question. Could this turn into another pandemic? And then speaking of that, is there a vaccine available to to combat against this?

[00:03:19]Yeah, I think that's a really great question, especially coming out from our recent pandemic with uh COVID, but this is a very different virus. It is very difficult to spread in comparison to something like influenza or uh SARS KV2.

[00:03:33]So, it's not the same situation as we saw ourselves in 2020. Uh this is likely just an isolated outbreak. Does is there some potential if that particular virus is you're exposed to it to spread human to human? Yes, but it's very unusual.

[00:03:49]And the World Health Organization again emphasizes that this is not a reason for public alarm. It's no cause for travel restrictions and we can especially here go on with our our normal daily life.

[00:04:02]>> Real quick, the vaccine as well. Is there a vaccine available?

[00:04:05]>> So, there is no current vaccine available for the strains that are in the Americas. There is one vaccine available in Asia for the strain that's in South Korea and China. Although the efficacy of that vaccine is very limited, there are several ongoing clinical trials and pre-clinical trials under development, but really funding for this virus to develop vaccine has been uh very limited and that has uh stalled some of the development of these vaccines. Hopefully uh some of these will come to uh more advanced clinical trials soon and be available to the public in the future.

[00:04:36]>> Dr. Jill Weatherhead. Thank you so