An outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship has many asking whether the disease could spread beyond the vessel where three people died and many passengers left before the disease was identified onboard.
Two Texans, who have returned to the U.S., were among those on the ship.
Dr. Catherine Troisi, a professor of epidemiology at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, says hantavirus risks don’t resemble those of COVID-19. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: What are the symptoms around hantavirus and how’s it spread?
Catherine Toisi: So, hantavirus is spread from rodents through their urine, feces, saliva or if you get bitten by a rat also can spread the disease. But it’s important to emphasize — we just don’t see that many cases.
The symptoms starts out like flu. So fever, body aches, that kind of thing, but it can quickly change into something more serious infecting the lungs.
And the case fatality rate, that is the number of people who are infected who end up unfortunately dying, can be high, but it’s important to emphasize that we don’t always know the denominator of that number — how many people were infected, because if they don’t have symptoms, they don’t get tested.
So we see it in the United States, particularly in drier states, southwest states, Arizona, Colorado… We have seen cases in Texas, but not very many over the years. We’ve only been testing, keeping track of cases since 1993.
And just to be clear, those cases in Texas are unrelated to this cruise ship, right?
Exactly. I’m talking about over the past 30 years.
Now, there were apparently a few Texans on this cruise ship where this outbreak occurred. Are those people being tracked to your knowledge?
And I think a question that a lot of people have is how are public health officials making sure that the outbreak is contained and being monitored?
There are two Texans who were on that ship who have returned to Texas. They are being monitored by the department of state health services.
And right now, they don’t have any symptoms. And to be honest, it’s probably unlikely they will. Hantavirus is not easy to transmit. This is not COVID. You need close, intimate [proximity], which means sharing a room.
In fact, of the three people who have died, two were husband and wife. Obviously they were in very close contact so they are being monitored for symptoms, but you know, I would guess nothing’s gonna happen.
And even if one of them or both of them do show signs of infection, again, hantavirus is not easy to transmit.
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You answered I think a question that I had about why people are so concerned. So, compared to COVID-19, the communicability, there’s really no similarity from what I understand you to be saying here. Am I right?
That is true. And I think part of the fear is that COVID — we saw those first a lot, not the very first — but a lot of the first cases on cruise ships. So I think that similarity is freaking people out.
But one of the hallmarks of COVID that made it so transmissible was that people who were infected, but didn’t have any symptoms yet, could get another person infected. That is not true with hantavirus. You have to be showing symptoms and by the time you’re showing symptoms you’re probably not going to the grocery store or to work or around other people.
So that’s one big difference between how COVID is spread and how hantavirus is spread.
Another question folks have: Is there anything that they should be doing to keep themselves healthy or is it too early to even consider anything like that?
Well, there are always things you should be doing to keep yourself healthy, but to prevent getting infected with hantavirus, nothing that you should be doing because of these cases.
However, if you have a cabin that is closed for the winter and you go back into it in the spring, rodents have gotten in there. They’ve made deposits and then you’re cleaning out the cabin for example, you can be exposed to hantavirus that way.
So it’s important to make sure that rodents don’t get into your dwelling. I mean, that’s a good idea anyways. If you are cleaning an area that’s been deserted for a while and may have rodent droppings, use an N95 mask. And hand hygiene always important.
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