The US’s withdrawal from the WHO – and cuts to the country’s health system – stymie officials’ response
The outbreak of hantavirus on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius illuminates major gaps in the US public health system – a worrying sign for stopping this outbreak quickly and preparing for a potential pandemic of a more widespread pathogen in coming years, experts say.
Passengers and their close contacts are at risk of hantavirus and need to follow public health guidance, but the danger for most people is near zero, officials and scientists say. Experts expect more cases in this outbreak to be identified, but they are emphatic that a hantavirus pandemic is highly unlikely.
“This is not Covid, this is not influenza. It spreads very, very differently,” Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the World Health Organization (WHO), said at a briefing on Thursday. “This is not the same situation we were in six years ago … It’s very different.”
The WHO has been coordinating a response with several countries. But Trump pulled out of the organization soon after taking office, and US leadership has been conspicuously absent in the global hantavirus response, experts say.
lol well i certainly hope it doesn’t become a pandemic. This particular strain is the Andes virus though, and it does spread person-to-person. Apparently it’s not as easy to do as with coronavirus, though? Also, if you think about any big city, there are a lot of rats / rodents in close proximity to humans, just like when the plague happened.
Not to say that I am worrying, or that anyone should, just that I don’t find anything out of the realm of possibility at this point.
It only spreads from person to person rarely, and only when you’re in very close quarters for a long period of time. It’s so rare that it’s been debated if it’s even actually spreading from human to human or just through being in the same contaminated setting.
Well that makes me feel better thanks
Less contagion but higher lethality is in my book just as scary. From what I read it seems quite lethal.
High lethality also decreases spread though.
Not as much with a 3-8 week incubation time
Depends if you’re actually contagious during that time or not. That was the big thing with COVID you can be contagious days before having symptoms. Where as SARS you would be symptomatic before you were contagious.