- Hantavirus infections primarily result from contact with infected rodent excretions.
- Symptoms include flulike indications, lung complications and possible kidney failure.
- Strict precautions are necessary during cleaning activities to prevent hantavirus exposure.
A virus suspected to have killed three people and made three others sick during a cruise is also problematic for homeowners and others as folks clean out garages and other outdoor spaces.
Hantavirus is believed to have killed three passengers on the cruise ship Hondius, operated by Oceanwide expeditions. Besides three others who are sick, the remaining 149 people on board are being told to isolate and follow strict precautionary measures, as NBC News reported.
The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both note little risk of transmission person to person, though precautions are being taken. The ship was denied docking at Praia off the coast of West Africa “as a precautionary measure.”
NBC reported that one of the passengers is in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a confirmed case of hantavirus, which led to suspicion that the other five cases are also hantavirus.
It’s not clear how the infections occurred, but a lot is known about hantavirus, including that it comes from being exposed to excretions from infected rodents, including saliva, urine and droppings. It is more often seen in people who were cleaning out sheds and garages without taking precautions around the droppings. In very rare cases, it spreads from one person to another.
Last year hantavirus killed Betsy Arakawa, Gene Hackman’s wife, who was 65. It was believed that she may have come in contact with the virus in an outbuilding on their Santa Fe, New Mexico, property.
How hantavirus infections usually occur
As the Associated Press reported, hantavirus is nothing new; it’s been around in various forms for centuries “with outbreaks documented in Asia and Europe.” Hantavirus has been in the U.S. since at least the early 1990s, most often in the Southwest and West.
It’s also an umbrella term for distinct diseases caused by different strains of hantavirus. Illnesses are often classified as either hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.
Typically, hantavirus infection can occur when someone comes in contact with rodent excretions and inhales infected air. Early symptoms are flulike: chills, fever, muscle aches and sometimes a headache.
While the symptoms can rapidly progress and become serious, including chest tightness and fluid in the lungs, the illness itself may not show up for between a week to eight weeks after contact with the infected rodent.
Hantavirus most commonly affects the lungs, but it can also cause hemorrhagic fever with kidney failure. That usually happens in the first week or two.
The lung syndrome kills about 35% of those affected, while the hemorrhagic fever with kidney problems kills up to 15%.
There’s no cure, but symptoms can often be treated to improve survival. And the severity of the illness varies greatly. Some people have extremely mild symptoms and may not even realize they have hantavirus. For others, it’s miserable and then lethal.
Avoiding contact with rodents and their droppings is key. People who are cleaning out sheds and garages or working in the yard where rodents might have left a mess are urged to wear plastic gloves and a face mask and spray the area with a bleach solution.
One should wet an area down thoroughly with the bleach spray and let it sit for five minutes so as not to stir up dust that’s been infected. You don’t want to sweep or vacuum as those activities can stir up infected particles that can then be inhaled. The bleach-soaked droppings should be mopped up with paper towels and placed in a garbage bag and sealed, then disposed of.
The most recent CDC data indicates nearly 900 cases in the U.S. between the beginning of surveillance in 1993 and the end of 2023. The vast majority of cases were pulmonary. None of the cases in the U.S. were believed to spread person to person.
Disaster onboard the ship
“Hantavirus isn’t really a virus that people usually associate with cruise ships,” Dr. Kari Moore Debbink, a virology expert at Johns Hopkins University, told The New York Times. She said the norovirus, which causes intestinal illness, is much more common on cruise ships.
Two of those who died were a married couple from The Netherlands, a 70-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife. The third death was a German national, “although the official cause of death is not known,” per NBC.
The cruise line said the passengers are from 23 different countries and include 17 Americans.