David Brown | Staff Writer
Despite growing global concerns about another pandemic, experts say hantavirus isn’t the next COVID-19 many are expecting.
Orthohantavirus, better known as hantavirus, is a genus of zoonotic viruses primarily found in rodents that, in humans, can cause severe, life-threatening diseases.
Human infections are typically caused by rodent-to-human contact or by breathing in contaminated airborne particles from infected rodents, such as urine, droppings, and saliva.
Infection with hantavirus can result in severe and potentially fatal diseases that vary by geographical location.
In the Americas, infection can lead to hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, a rare respiratory illness with fatality rates of up to 50%. The disease is caused by the Sin Nombre virus, a species of hantavirus carried by the deer mouse, which commonly occurs in areas west of the Mississippi River in North and Central America.
In Asia and Europe, infection can lead to hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a kidney-damaging viral disease with fatality rates of up to 15%. In the United States, the Seoul virus is the only hantavirus that causes HFRS–a virus caused by wild and pet Norway rats–with fatality rates of 1%, often being asymptomatic in most cases.
“Hantavirus has been around for millions of years,” said Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert.
So why the global concern now?
On May 2, the World Health Organization was formally notified about a severe acute respiratory illness aboard the MV Hondius, a vessel which departed from Ushuaia, Argentina.
Weeks before the report, a 70-year old Dutch man had developed symptoms that led to his death aboard the vessel, followed by his spouse a few days later after a flight arrived in South Africa, with a third passenger falling ill a few days later.
By May 4, a total of seven cases of hantavirus occurred from the MV Hondius, involving three deaths, three individuals experiencing mild symptoms, and one individual experiencing major symptoms.
As Dr. Marty explains, the concern around hantavirus is often driven by a misunderstanding of what the virus actually is.
“Right now, there is misinformation going around about hantavirus,” she said. “It’s a family of viruses in which just one genus can cause diseases in humans.”
Currently, what is causing panic is the type of hantavirus found on the MV Hondius, the Andes virus, a type of hantavirus primarily found in South America, particularly in the mountainous regions of Argentina and Chile, where the vessel traveled from.
“We know how to control this virus from outbreaks that we’ve seen in the past in South America, most recently in 2025, where it could be theorized how the Dutch passenger could have contracted it from,” said Dr. Marty.“But the thing with Hantavirus, it rarely goes beyond 4 generations; it’s just unfortunate that more than 30 people got off before anybody knew that this virus was spreading on the ship.”
Since the outbreak of the Andes virus is relatively contained, as we know, everyone on or in contact with passengers of the MV Hondius, contrary to the information in the news, health officials can find and quarantine individuals who can transmit hantavirus before they gain symptoms.
“This will never be COVID,” said Dr. Marty. “There were a lot of people who got infected with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that led to COVID, that had minimal symptoms, and they didn’t feel like quarantining because they felt fine.”
The thing is, most people with hantavirus are generally too sick to spread it when symptoms appear, so the idea of super spreaders is generally much lower than COVID. While managing these patients is difficult in some aspects, this virus has been known for a long time.
“We’ve known from our experience with COVID that convalescent serum can help. When people got sick and recovered, their blood contained antibodies, and we also used this in Andes virus cases as well,” said Dr. Marty. “So even though we don’t have a direct antiviral, we do have this kind of targeted treatment.”
“In the case of biology, there is never a chance that a massive outbreak of hantavirus won’t occur, but those of us who are involved and know about this virus are practicing the appropriate public health measure,” Dr. Marty continued.
Even though the outbreak of Andes virus and hantavirus may seem disastrous within the news, in reality it only affects a few hundred at most people each year.
“Most of us are fine, but we must be vigilant, pay attention, and remember all those public health measures that we learned about,” said Dr. Marty.
While there is no major concern of a hantavirus becoming a major world crisis anytime soon, it is essential to understand the basic science of it and continue to follow recommended hygiene practices by the CDC.
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