LISTEN | Why you must not worry about contracting hantavirus

The national department of health and experts have urged the public not to panic over the fears of possibly contracting hantavirus as it is not “easily” transmitted from human to human. This comes after two passengers, husband and wife, died after allegedly contracting hantavirus while on international cruise ship travelling to Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa. The wife died at a hospital in Kempton Park after collapsing at OR Tambo International Airport trying to return home to the Netherlands following her husband’s death.

A third person who was also on the ship is in hospital getting treatment. According toFoster Mohalefrom the department of health, as well as former chairperson of SA Medical Association Dr Angelique Coetzee, there is no need for South Africans to panic or worry about possibly contracting the virus. Coetzee said hantavirus is not a human-to-human-spreadviruslike flu, and for it to spread in the form of human contact is extremely rare.

“It is not considered as person-to-person-spreading virus. It is mainly transmitted from the rodents, so [one] gets it by breathing in those particles from the rodents droppings or the urine,” she said. “So the risk to the general public is very low.” According to Coetzee, symptoms of having contracted the virus include flu-like symptoms, muscle aches and fatigue.

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Severe symptom affect the lungs and cause breathing difficulties, she said. The situation at the cruise ship is most likely an isolated case rather than a widespread outbreak, said Coetzee. “Avoid contact with rodents and their droppings and when you clean areas where rodents might have been, do not sweep or vacuum dry, rather dampen the area with disinfections, use gloves and ensure good ventilation,” she added.

Prof Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology and the director of SA medical Research council, shared the same sentiments as Coetzee. “There is no need for South Africans to worry as the virus does not transmit through a contact to contact. [One would be mainly] infected if exposed to droppings of rodents.”

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