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Continued fears over the coronavirus pandemic have raised concern about the hantavirus, a well-known virus that recently killed a person in China.
Case Detected
A man from the Yunnan in China who died Monday tested positive for hantavirus. Another 32 people that rode a bus with the person were later tested for the virus, according the worldwide Times, China’s national English newspaper.
The Global Times said: “A person from Yunnan died while on his way back to Shandng Province for work on a chartered bus on Monday. He was tested positive for #hantavirus. Other 32 people on bus were tested.”
What is hantavirus?
Hantavirus isn’t a replacement of Corona. It’s been well-documented for awhile.
Hantaviruses spread from rodents and may cause multiple different diseases in people, consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The hantaviruses — referred to as the “New World” hantaviruses — can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which may be a severe and sometimes fatal respiratory illness.
Others — called the “Old World” hantavirsus — live mostly in Europe and may cause haemorrhagic fever and renal syndrome, consistent with the CDC.
The CDC said: “Each hantavirus serotype features a specific rodent host species and is spread to people via aerosolized virus that’s shed in urine, feces and saliva, and fewer frequently by a bite from an infected host. the foremost important hantavirus within the us which will cause HPS is that the Sin Nombre virus, spread by the Peromyscus maniculatus .”
Symptoms of Hantavirus
Symptoms are almost like those of the flu, like muscle aches, headache and fever. Nausea and vomiting can happen, too. Shortness of fluid within the lungs, breath and decreased heart function came too, consistent with UC Davis Health.
According to the CDC, there are not any cases of HPS within the us during which it’s been passed from person to person. Research has no evidence that health care workers contracted the disease after being around sick patients, too.
CDC said: “In Chile and Argentina, rare cases of person-to-person transmission have occurred among close contacts of an individual who was ill with a kind of hantavirus called Andes virus.”
Is this to be worried?
There was a “severe outbreak” in 1993 within the Four Corners region of the U.S., consistent with the CDC.
States that saw cases of this since 1993 include: Washington, Oregon, California. Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico , North Dakota , Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Vermont.
Utah has had 14 cases since 1993.
Stuart Cohen, chief of infectious diseases and infection control at UC Davis center , said the prospect of getting the disease are 1 in 13,000,000, which is a smaller amount likely than getting hit by lightning.
Cohen said: “However, because it’s uncommon, physicians aren’t necessarily on the lookout for it when patients have flu-like symptoms, especially in those that are otherwise fit and healthy. Effective treatment requires active management of pulmonary symptoms well before they become severe.”
