Bbc is reporting that one Swiss person was on the ship with hantavirus and travelled back to zurich at the end of april. While in zurich, he was notified via email from the ship. He is now in zurich hospital after his hausartz told him to go to hospital.
Apparently he has the ‘Andes’ variant, which has incubation period of 2 - 8 weeks.
Swiss ministy says human to human transmission occurs only through close contact. Risk of further cases in CH is low.
Same virus that killed Gene Hackman´s wife a couple of years ago. But didn´t kill him (he died due to the lack of care as he suffered severe alzheimer).
For those who are already panicking…there are Hantavirus cases in Switzerland although they are sporadic-- mainly among farmers, who are aware of the risk. That is why everybody tries to keep mice at bay. The European virus is less …virulent, and goes a lot of times unnoticed.
Modern pressurised aircraft have very efficient cabin air filtration systems that flows from the centre of the cabin to the walls. The aircraft have HEPA filters that effectively filter the viruses from the air. You have a slight risk of picking up viruses from passengers sitting between you and the center and an even lower risk from passengers in the rows immediately behind and in front of you.
Which is why I always book an aisle seat.
Wash your hands frequently as you are touching lots of things and, if you can avoid it, try not to touch your face with your hands. Usually once I’ve boarded and am in my aisle seat I’ll use a towelette to clean my hands and the surfaces around me.
You can’t avoid viruses but you can take precautions.
Hantavirus infections got identified on a cruise ship. Case fatality rate is 42% at this point as 3 out of 7 infected have died so far. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), the syndrome caused by the virus genus, generally has 30-60% lethality according to Wiki.
Infections are transmitted through excrements of infected rodents, so it should be containable.
People become infectious around symptom onset, not during asymptomatic incubation. No evidence shows infectiousness before flu-like symptoms (fever, muscle aches) appear.
28 passengers apparently disembarked in St Helena like the Swiss and flew home to all over the world unaware of the infection as at that time there had just been one death. So far there are 7 infections.
Bit on the fatalistic side…the Antarctic and the Drake Passage are famous for a reason: deadliness.
Back to science, maybe it’s time read a bit on Spanish.
El Clarín (local newspaper) is not bounded for EU privacy regulations. So, they tell the story of dead couple traveling among Chile, Uruguay and Argentina on a big trip that started last year. The newspaper also mentions the only known (so far) hantavirus variety that is contagious from human to human. This variety know as “Andes” caused an outbreak in Epuyén, Chubut, Argentina in 2018. 34 sicks, 11 deaths. Argentina will share ARN of the virus that will help to do the testing in places worried with contagion. Also, local health authorities in Argentina will catch up rats in Ushuaia and test them for the virus.
Although cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused by ANDV and its close relatives have been reported in Argentina and surrounding countries over the past two decades, limited person-to-person transmission has been reported and has been observed mostly in southern Argentina and in Chile. An important known risk factor for person-to-person transmission of ANDV is prolonged or close contact with symptomatic persons
I know this is serious, but I can’t help but smile, to party is important:
Our findings traced the first person-to-person transmission event to a birthday party with approximately 100 guests. The index patient (Patient 1) attended the event for 90 minutes and was reportedly symptomatic at the time, with fever and malaise. Five persons (Patients 2 through 6) who had been seated close to Patient 1 reported onset of symptoms consistent with ANDV hantavirus pulmonary syndrome between 17 and 24 days after the party.
Bad news, good news. Only a few health care workers attending the sick had PPE available, anyway no patient to health care worker infection.
Incubation periods ranged from 9 to 40 days.
Although several high-risk medical procedures were performed in patients with ANDV hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, including orotracheal intubation and cleaning of bodily fluids such as vomit, diarrhea, and other secretions, no nosocomial infections were reported among health care workers who had been in direct or close contact with the patients at the health care facilities
Of the 45 persons who worked in the intensive care unit and emergency department, only a small number used any form of personal protective equipment (including N95 respirators [N100 respirators for intubations and cleaning], goggles, and disposable laboratory coats) while they were in direct contact with an infected patient.
In Chile, serologically confirmed human hantavirus infections have occurred throughout a wide latitudinal distribution extending from the regions of Valparaíso (32 to 33°S) to Aysén (46°S) in southern Patagonia. In this study, we found seropositive rodents further north in the Coquimbo region (30°S) in Chile. Rodent seroprevalence was 1.4%, with Oligoryzomys longicaudatus displaying the highest seroprevalence (5.9%), followed by Abrothrix longipilis (1.9%) and other species exhibiting ≤0.6% seropositivity.
This is Mr (or Mrs?) Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, cute little rat.
I’m surprised but there’s more. First time I come across the word “Ratada” in Spanish. It literally means rat outbreak. There’s an endemic bamboo that has extremely long flowering intervals, and produces lots of seeds which are food for the little rats. When bamboo flowers, rat outbreak. In Spanish but autotranslation works fine:
