The head of the World Health Organization has warned countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius, and thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and evacuating its passengers and crew.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to follow the WHO’s advice and recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and constant monitoring of high-risk contacts.

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak, but of course the situation could change and, given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks,” he told a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday.

  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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    8 hours ago

    seems the most lethal viruses are carried by rodents, and bats. rodents have hantaviruses, poxviruses likely originated from them before becoming smallpox. and bats with ebola,rabies.

  • finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Guess the antivaxxers better organise some rat feces parties to make sure their immune systems are working as nature intended. Soon, Alex Jones will be selling Ratvermectin: “The disease and the cure in one pleasant-tasting paste!”

  • stretch2m@infosec.pub
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    14 hours ago

    Thank God we have a capable politician heading up Health and Human Services. And a reasonable President.

    Oh, wait.

    • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Oh this is colossally worse. Is that a word? It is now. This has basically a few days where you’re ‘fine’ w/ cold symptoms, and next thing you know you’re dead.

      • caboose2006@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Yeah, but unless you’re making out with an infected person, ya ain’t getting hantavirus. This will not be COVID 2. I’d be surprised if 30 people total get infected from this “outbreak”

        • nickiwest@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Non-US research suggests that the Andean strain of hantavirus is spread through respiratory droplets, like Covid.

          There are documented cases of infection in people who were just in the same room as the person who gave it to them.

        • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          It specifically infects the lungs. The normal method of transmission WAS stir up rodent shit breath in the aerosolized particles get sick with no route between person A to B. If its passing from human to human we have no idea how transmissible it is or as it evolves in a larger population of people than ever before how transmissible it will become.

          We also need to know when in that long ass incubation period you become capable of spreading it. Ideally its when you become visibly sick but who fucking knows. If its much earlier it could be a fucking disaster.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Judging by how we did with the last pandemic … I guess we should enjoy whatever we’ve got now because all of it is going to get screwed up by the dumbest people on the planet

  • BehavioralClam@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    why dfq is always the guardian with the fearmongering? I can’t take these guys seriously because every second article is something like this from some different threat. Also don’t trust them since they fired Glenn Greenwald.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak

    I’d fucking hope so…

    If we see signs of a larger outbteak, it’s already too late. This has 40% mortality rate under the best conditions when dealing with isolated cases, and an R factor over two (1 is where its infectious enough to cause wifescale problems)

    This is like Y2k all over again. We need to take it seriously and if we do a bunch of idiots will think that means we didn’t need to.

    But if we let the idiots win and don’t take it seriously, then we’re all fucked

    I’ll never understand why the idiots get so fucking triggered that someone else is worried about something and trying to protect them.

    If people don’t think this is a big deal and there’s no reason for anyone to worry, then they can just ignore the entire thing on a personal level.

    Instead they feel insulted if anyone disagrees with them, because that’s what idiots do.

    They don’t care about if they’re right, they just get mad if anyone disagrees with them about anything.

    • Banana@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      Hantavirus is not nearly as contagious as something like COVID and requires close, prolonged contact and sharing of respiratory secretions or saliva to spread. Its important to be wary of hantavirus, but the best thing you can do instead of panicking is to educate yourself on it.

      Ever swept your garage? You were putting yourself at risk for hantavirus. A lot of people don’t know this. Read up on the way it spreads and where it originates (usually rodent droppings – it’s no surprise this happened on a cruise ship as they are pretty well known vectors of disease), and how to properly deal with things like that.

      I understand why you feel worried and that is valid, but channel that energy into educating yourself and those in your circles so you’re prepared.

      • radiofreebc@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        The origin wasn’t the ship. It was a landfill that 2 of the ship’s guests went to in a port in Argentina.

        They brought it onboard.

      • stepintomydojo@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        FYI, the suspected origin is South America, not on board the ship. Cruise ships do seem to be perfect environments for further spreading disease, though.

        On Thursday, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said the Dutch couple, who were the first two cases, had travelled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip “which included visits to sites where the species of rat known to carry the virus was present”.

    • YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Shouldn’t a mask be extremely effective against this virus? So it should be easy to protect yourself I would think.

      It will probably also be a form of natural selection for those that refuse to wear one.

      • MML@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        I think even basic hygiene would be pretty effective against the virus, IDK doesn’t seem like the “next COVID” even if we should do what we can to prevent it.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Any mask is better than no mask…

        But look at the type the WHO was wearing (full on body suits), or the plastic “iron lung” tents the Spanish are using when someone pops positive.

        I really don’t know if COVID era masks would do anything or not.

        It’ll be like COVID at best, where wearing a mask doesn’t prevent you from being infected, but a mask drastically reduces who you infect.

        So, masks would only work if everyone is wearing them. One asymptomatic idiot that refuses to even get tested would infect everyone they walk past.

        • YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          Well yeah I would expect the WHO doctors to take every precaution they can especially because they are the ones studying it. But from my understanding this virus spreads through saliva and small liquid particles that are expelled from talking, coughing, or sneezing. I would think that a mask would help a ton in preventing these liquid particles from entering your system. You would also want to wash your hands frequently too especially before eating.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            But from my understanding this virus spreads through saliva and small liquid particles that are expelled from talking, coughing, or sneezing.

            You mean like COVID?

            Or literally every respiratory infection?

            If a group is all wearing masks, no one is exhaling breath with those droplets, and everyone is safe.

            If only infected people wear a mask, everyone is safe.

            If a single infected person doesn’t wear a mask, they can infect people still wearing masks.

            Rather than try to explain the details, think of your eyeballs, if an infected person breath lands on your eyeballs, how does a mask protect you?

            If the viral load they’re shedding lands on your face, hands, literally anything besides the inside of your nose or mouth, what do you think happens to it?

            Masks work by preventing it from coming out of an infected person’s face holes, it doesn’t magically form a bubble around a healthy person making them immune…

            • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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              21 hours ago

              Rather than try to explain the details, think of your eyeballs, if an infected person breath lands on your eyeballs, how does a mask protect you?

              I’m not going to counter this stupid self-research argument from 2020, but respiratory viruses only infect cell types with the correct receptors, found in the airway.

              Medical professionals, who know what they are doing and are educated, wear masks. It’s not cosplay.

            • YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              Got it so I will need goggles, a mask, and frequently washing my hands/exposed skin. While this might not be perfect its better than going without.

              I get what you are saying that infected people are the ones that need to wear masks to prevent this from spreading but I do not have control over what other people are doing and can only control what actions I make, and I would like to take precautions if this starts getting worse.

  • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    We just sent a boatload of sample cases all over the world so countries can practice for the outbreak…

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      8 hours ago

      USA has thier own version of hantavirus, the SIN nombre virus found in the midwest, in wild rodents, by the western deer mouse. i think the one on the cruise ship is milder and is more transmissible human-humans. while the korean and the SIn nombre is more zoonotic specifically.

  • Solrac@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Remember how they had that meeting a while ago? Just like with covid? Yeah, stock up long term food just in case

  • Mobiuthuselah@mander.xyz
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    1 day ago

    People contract it by breathing in aerosolized fresh rodent feces and urine. It’s rare to begin with. This is very different from Covid in the way it spreads. I agree it’s good to be prepared with ways to limit its mortality rate in affected individuals, but these news articles are whipping up hysteria in a population that just survived a world pandemic of something that was highly communicable. Hantavirus is not.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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          21 hours ago

          The Andes strain, which is what is being discussed, is indeed spreadable person to person.

          Actually is not. . One shit MD-based study concluded this, but all others say no.

          The balance of the evidence does not support the claim of human-to-human transmission of ANDV. Well-designed cohort and case-control studies that control for co-exposure to rodents are needed to inform public health recommendations.

          Then there’s Reddit-Lemmy-Facebook University.

      • Mobiuthuselah@mander.xyz
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        1 day ago

        Most sources say no. From what I understand, there is a variant in South America that is believed to have been previously passed human to human, but that may be influencing media reports to say it can be rather than differentiating that in most of the world that hasn’t happened.

        Edit: I see now that the article talks about the cruise ship having gone to South America. This still wouldn’t necessarily mean that the virus is as transferrable as COVID was, but with the long incubation time, I understand the abundance of caution.