US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Unlike COVID-19, hantavirus is almost not transmitted by the respiratory route, but the patient’s blood and waste products can be infectious. This was told by virologists after a Chinese worker died from a hantavirus on Monday.
The news of the death from the hantavirus against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic caused great concern among Internet regulars. Many fear that the virus may be transmitted from person to person and will be a double blow to humanity, as the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet ended.
This worker, named Tian, was returning to work in Shandong on a rented bus along with 29 other passengers on Monday, but was unwell on the road and was sent to a hospital in Ninshan County, Shanxi Province. Despite treatment, Tien passed away on Monday morning.
All other passengers passed tests for a new coronavirus, which gave a negative result, as well as for hantavirus. The second results are not yet ready. This was announced on Wednesday by the authorities in Ninshan County.
The deceased was unlikely to infect his fellow travelers, although they were on the same bus, since hantavirus is usually not transmitted from person to person. In addition, hantavirus and COVID-19 cannot attack a person at the same time, Yang Zhang Qiu, a virologist at Wuhan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“Unlike COVID-19, hantavirus in most cases is not transmitted through the respiratory system. However, the virus can be transmitted to other people through the blood and waste products of an infected person,” he added.
Hantavirus, which causes epidemic hemorrhagic fever and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, is an acute viral infectious disease whose main symptoms include fever, bleeding, and kidney damage.
The cause of the disease can be contact with rats, the use of foods that have been touched by rats, as well as inhalation of air in which particles of mouse droppings are present. According to Jan, this disease is most common in villages from May to June and from October to December.
“Worry about hantavirus should not be. Hantavirus infection can be prevented and controlled, and there is a vaccine against it. In cities, people are very rarely infected with this virus. This disease is most often found in rural areas, where mice and rats appear in the field during field work,” the virologist explained.
This disease prevails in Eurasia. Cases of infection have been reported in Russia, Finland, Sweden and China. The mortality rate from hantavirus in China is from one to 10%, but in the US it is much higher, reaching an average of 40%, Yang said.
Like COVID-19, hantavirus can seriously damage the kidneys, liver, and other organs of a patient who has symptoms such as fever and heavy bleeding.
After the death of a worker from a hantavirus, experts from the southwestern province of Yunnan began an epidemiological investigation. Over the past five years, 1,231 cases of hantavirus infection have been reported in this province. According to the paper.cn, more than 200 cases are reported each year in this province.
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