Schaffner explained how people may get infected with the hantavirus.
“Hantavirus lives in small rodents in certain parts of the world, usually where the climate is rather dry. The virus is shed in the urine and feces of the rodents. People usually become infected when they stir up dried dust that contains the virus, causing an aerosol which is inhaled, thus initiating the infection,” he told MNT.
“In this cruise ship incident, the passengers boarded in Argentina. This is relevant, because a hantavirus variant, the Andes strain, occurs there and, different from other hantaviruses, the Andes strain can be spread from person to person,” he said.
“Humans can get infected with hantaviruses through contact with the urine, feces, or saliva of infected rodents,” Chan told MNT.
“Less commonly, human-to-human transmission has been seen in previous outbreaks involving the Andes hantavirus, which is unique as other hantaviruses are not known to spread human-to-human. Andes hantavirus spread between humans typically requires close and prolonged contact leading to exposure to infectious body fluids,” he explained.
Gandhi said this particular strain can spread from person to person as well as through rodent exposure.
“At least in prior outbreaks with the Andes Strain, the contact had to be close contact an infected person for spread, including direct physical contact, prolonged time spent in enclosed spaces, and exposure to the infected person’s body fluids,” she said.
