While COVID-19 continues to spread, infect and kill the world, another virus reportedly caused the death of a man in China on Monday. Reportedly, this man who died was tested positive for hantavirus. This does not necessarily mean though, that the illness should worry that another pandemic is yet to happen.
Hantaviruses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are a "family of the virus spreading through rodents." Specifically, as earlier mentioned, Global Times, the man died while he was on his way to return to Shandong Province.
The news outlet said via Twitter that the man "was tested positive" for the said illness. Meanwhile, 32 other people on the same bus the man had ridden were also tested.
The tweet, sent in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of a new coronavirus had been shared over 15,000 times. Even though countries all over the world are on heightened alert due to COVID-19, there is no sign that hantavirus postures a worldwide threat to public health.
Based on the report of CDC, this illness has "rare cases" and that they spread because of saliva or droppings, and close contact with rodent urine.
Rats as the Culprits
In the information shared by CDC, certain types of mice and rats in the US can be considered as carriers of the virus which is eventually transferred when a person breathes in the air that's contaminated. On its website, the center indicated, "The hantaviruses causing illness among the people in the US cannot be transferred from one person to another."
Additionally, rare cases in Argentina and Chile have also reported "person-to-person transmission" when an individual is in close contact with a person hit by Andes virus, a kind of hantavirus, said CDC.
In the US, according to CDC, an infection can lead to "hantavirus pulmonary syndrome," a severe respiratory condition that can be considered fatal. Among the symptoms to watch include fever, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, muscle aches, abdominal problems, and chills.
Later on, as the illness progresses, shortness of breath and coughing can occur as the lungs become filled with liquid. Meanwhile, in Asia and Europe, Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, according to CDC, was also discovered to possibly occur and it may cause chills, pain, nausea, blurred vision and fever.
In addition, more severe symptoms may also comprise of acute kidney failure.
An Already-Existing Illness
For those who haven't known, hantavirus is not a new health condition and it is not that alarming. In fact, between 1993 and 2017, only 728 cases were confirmed in the US, with most of them, based on the CDC data, were reported to be non-fatal.
Comparably, based on a Johns Hopkins University tracker, since the latter part of January, when the first known COVID-19 case was identified in the US, there had already been over 45,000 confirmed cases nationwide.
Meanwhile, in the middle of 1993, a hantavirus outbreak took place in an area between New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Then, in 2012, another outbreak in Yosemite hit 10 people. And in 2017, in seven states, around 17 individuals were also hit by the outbreak.
