Answering questions on the deadly hantavirus outbreak

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Joining us uh for more is Dr. Amshad Dalja, senior scholar for the John's Hopkins Center for Health Security.

[00:00:07]Great to have you uh Anish. What are the most searched questions? Many of these are are very basic, but this question at the top of the list, what is the Andes strain of the hivirus?

[00:00:19]>> So hirus has about 50 different versions of it that can infect humans. The Andes strain is one that's endemic in South America, meaning that's the main strain of haunt virus that circulates in places like Argentina. And what's unique about that strain is it's the only haunt virus that we know of that can in limited circumstances have the ability to transmit between humans. It doesn't do it very well, but it can do it. And it may be because it there's more of a viral load, higher levels of virus in the body when you're infected with Andes. And that's why this is happening.

[00:00:50]It probably would not have happened if it was another version of haunt virus.

[00:00:54]>> So people are also searching uh how is haunt virus spread. There seems to be some confusion about this.

[00:01:02]>> So hav virus is primarily a rodent to human transmission and then it stops.

[00:01:08]Humans are what we call deadend hosts.

[00:01:10]In this case it sounds like the initial patient got infected by a rodent maybe in Argentina or Uruguay or Chile and then spread it to other individuals. And that happened because it was the Andes version and it spread to close contacts and and that's not the way that most people get haunt virus. It's usually something where someone is cleaning out an old barn, an old attic and they get exposed to the droppings of rodents.

[00:01:36]They get aerosolized. That's exactly what happened to I think Gene Hackman's wife who died of haunt virus in New Mexico recently.

[00:01:44]So, is there a havirus vaccine?

[00:01:49]>> There's not a vaccine for haunt. It's one that we need a vaccine for, but it isn't one that we have an off-the-shelf vaccine or even one far in clinical development.

[00:01:58]>> So, are we anywhere close? Let's say this continues to spread and it gets worse. I mean hopefully it will not but if it does remember with co how quickly those vaccines were being created would we be could we see that happening this time around?

[00:02:17]>> So I don't think it's going to spread in any major manner. I think this is going to be a contained outbreak but vaccine development has been really revolutionized by the advent of mRNA vaccine technology by other vaccine platforms. So yes, I think we can do vaccines quickly if necessary. And I don't think that there's an urgent need to do this for the haunt virus, but it would be good to have that vaccine just because haunt virus is something that that is worldwide that that kills people every year. It's underappreciated. It's getting headlines now. So it would be a good opportune time to reinvigorate vaccine development for haunt virus.

[00:02:51]>> Yeah, point well made. Okay, one more uh top search. Uh what are the symptoms of haunt virus?

[00:02:58]So the symptoms begin with flu-l like symptoms, fevers, chills, muscle aches and pain and then people kind of get sicker and that's what's key to this virus is that it causes the blood vessels around and in the lungs to get leaky and the lungs fill with fluid. So people may become short of breath, they may develop cough and then they can have organ system failure including respiratory failure. But it's that flu-l like symptoms that that it starts with.

[00:03:23]>> All right, doc, thank you so much for the insight. Uh we're definitely going to call on you again and we're going to continue to answer your hunt virus questions throughout the day throughout the day, including on our new show, Searched. You can tune in right here on ABC News Live every weekday 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.