Dr. Céline Gounder explains hantavirus, which rodents carry and humans catch by breathing contaminated dust. A cruise ship outbreak near Antarctica killed three of seven infected people. The Andes virus strain, found in Argentina and Chile, can spread person-to-person through close contact, but WHO says the public risk is low.
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3 people are dead and nearly 150 quarantined on a cruise ship off the coast of West Africa. The World Health Organization is investigating an outbreak of the rare but deadly hantavirus on board. William Brangham has more.
Um, now there is no cure or FDA-approved vaccine for hantavirus, which is normally spread by contact with infected rodents. But the WHO said today they believe there's evidence of a rare instance of human-to-human transmission on that ship. The agency has identified 2 confirmed and 5 suspected cases, including the 3 deaths. One man is now in critical condition in an ICU in South Africa. The WHO says the risk to the public remains low, but for more on this outbreak, we are joined again by Dr. Céline Gounder. She is editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News and an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist. Dr. Gounder, so Dr. Céline Gounder, so nice to have you back on the program. Before we get to this particular outbreak, just tell us a little bit about what is hantavirus and how do humans normally get infected by it?
Hantavirus is in fact a family of viruses that are carried by rodents. So people typically get infected by breathing in dust that has been contaminated with mouse or rat droppings, urine, or saliva. And most infections are happening when somebody disturbs a rodent-contaminated space. Space. So it might be cleaning out a shed or sweeping in the basement, opening a building that's been closed for a while. In the US, the severe form is called hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. So cardio, the heart, pulmonary, the lungs. It starts with fever, headache, and muscle aches, but then can rapidly progress to severe breathing problems and shock. And then depending on exactly which hantavirus, between 12 and 45% of people who develop that severe form go on to die. But I think it's really important to emphasize that this is exceedingly rare. In the United States, we've had less than 900 cases over the past 30 years, and globally there are an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 infections a year, most of which are milder forms seen in Europe and Asia.
So what do we know about this outbreak on the ship, and how concerning should it be that the WHO seems to believe that there is human-to-human transmission of the virus.
So this is a ship that departed from Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1st and sailed, uh, through Antarctica and up the coast of Africa. As of today, 7 people have been affected. 3 passengers have died, uh, and 2 cases have been confirmed to be hantavirus by lab tests, including one of the passengers who has died. As you mentioned earlier, there is one person who's in intensive care in South Africa. They are in critical but stable condition, uh, and there have been, uh, at least an additional person who is reporting a mild fever now. The WHO, um, and, uh, South African authorities and others have been working on investigating these cases, taking samples from patients, uh, but for now, um, the, uh, passengers remain aboard the ship, the remaining passengers, uh, to be quarantined until, uh, the situation can be, uh, thoroughly investigated. Related.
Let's say that the WHO does confirm a human-to-human transmission. Does that— I know that can be rare. It does happen with hantavirus, but would that potentially indicate that this virus is shifting or mutating in some way?
So we know that there is one form of hantavirus, Andes virus, which circulates in Argentina and Chile that has been documented to spread person-to-person. No other hantavirus does this, but this one does. We have evidence going back to the late 1990s showing evidence of person-to-person transmission. So it's quite rare, but with this particular form of hantavirus, it is possible. But I do think it's important that people understand that this still requires very close, prolonged contact. It's very different still from viruses that can become pandemics like COVID or flu, which can be transmitted much more easily through the airborne respiratory route.
All right. That is Dr. Céline Gounder at KFF News. Thank you so much, as always, for being here.
My pleasure.
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