An outbreak of the Andes-virus strain of hantavirus on a cruise ship has resulted in three deaths [1].
The incident has renewed public concern over viral transmissibility, prompting health experts to clarify the differences between hantavirus and the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Ashish Jha, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and former White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator, said how the virus spreads [2]. While the Andes strain is notable for its ability to transmit between humans, experts said it bears little resemblance to SARS-CoV-2 in terms of its pandemic potential [3].
Most hantaviruses are typically contracted through contact with infected rodents. However, the Andes virus is a rare exception that can spread from person to person [4]. Despite this capability, the current outbreak remained localized to the vessel where the three fatalities occurred [1].
Public health officials are utilizing lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to manage the response to this outbreak [2]. They said that the morbid nature of hantavirus, which often causes severe respiratory failure, does not equate to the high level of contagiousness seen in previous global health crises [5].
Comparing the two viruses helps officials manage public anxiety and allocate resources. The limited scale of the cruise ship event suggests that the virus does not possess the same rapid-spread mechanisms as the coronavirus [3].
Health officials continue to monitor the situation to ensure the outbreak does not expand beyond the initial group of passengers [1].
“Three passengers died in the cruise-ship hantavirus outbreak.”
The localized nature of this outbreak underscores the critical difference between a high-fatality virus and a high-transmissibility virus. While the Andes-virus hantavirus is lethal and capable of human-to-human spread, its inability to achieve the exponential growth seen with SARS-CoV-2 means it is unlikely to trigger a global pandemic, provided containment protocols are maintained.
