Another deadly virus discovered in China

BY JONELL PANTLITZ

The coronavirus outbreak has only just begun, but apparently the world has begun panicking about another deadly virus. This article discusses the issues surrounding misinformation, and why it is important to always check your sources.

I was doing my daily social media check-in and saw that the Hantavirus is now #1 trending on Twitter with people in panic. A few moments after, I saw my friends posting about the virus on their feed as if was the end of the world. So what exactly is the Hantavirus and should we really be scared for our lives? First things first, the Hantavirus was discovered in1993. It is nothing new and was not created in a lab this year.

This all started when China’s Global Times tweeted that a man from Yunnan Province died while on his way back to Shandong Province for work on a bus on Monday. The 32 other people on the bus were also tested for the virus, prompting fears of another coronavirus-like global pandemic.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Hantaviruses are a family of viruses that are spread mainly by rodents and can cause varied diseases in people. It can cause Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The disease is not airborne and can only spread to people if they come in contact with urine, feces, and saliva of rodents and less frequently by a bite from an infected host.

CDC noted that early symptoms of Hantavirus include fatigue, fever, and muscle aches, along with headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems. If left untreated, it can lead to coughing, shortness of breath and can be fatal, with a mortality rate at about 38%. While the initial symptoms of HFRS are similar to HPS, it can also cause: low blood pressure, acute shock, vascular leakage, and acute kidney failure. HPS can be passed on from person to person, while HFRS transmission between people is extremely rare.

There may also be as many as 150,000 cases of HFRS each year, with more than half occurring in China, whereas the coronavirus has infected 414,661 people worldwide and killed over 18,552 as of March 24^th, 2020.

People are blaming China for this virus outbreak. Some are going so far as to repeat the claim that the coronavirus and now the Hantavirus are the result of lab experiments.

Overall there is no need to overact since the Hantavirus is primarily spread through direct contact with infected rodents, not by human-to-human transmission. Let’s say you are unfortunate enough to come in contact with this virus; you probably wouldn’t be able to pass on the virus by touching another person. The likelihood of Hantavirus adding to the already crazy situation that we are in globally is small, but it is important to know what is happening all over the world. If the Coronavirus has taught us anything, it is to pay attention to world issues and realize that it could always happen to us.