An outbreak of a virus for which there is no cure occurred on a cruise ship sailing to the Canary Islands. Moreover, people with symptoms of the illness are already present in six countries, and discussions are spreading on social media about whether this is a new COVID. We asked this question to doctor, biochemist, and molecular biologist Sviatlana Kabanava.
Photo: AP
The virus in question is called Andes. It is one of the orthohantaviruses family, meaning infections that are usually transmitted from rodents to humans.
Sviatlana explains how this happens:
"Viral particles are shed by infected rodents in their saliva, feces, or urine. Human infection can occur if a person consumes food containing excretions from infected animals, inhales dust with their secretions, or if such an animal bites them."
Andes poses a particular danger because, reportedly, it can also be transmitted from person to person, which facilitates its spread. There is no specific treatment or vaccines for this virus; medics can only support the body while it fights. The mortality rate from Andes can reach 40%.
However, Andes does not spread at all like COVID.
"The spread of COVID escalated into a pandemic because coronavirus is transmitted airborne from person to person. Schematically, this can be imagined as one infected person infecting a large number of people in a cinema, and then each of them infects relatives and colleagues at work.
With each step, there will be more and more infections, and eventually, there will be so many that the situation will become uncontrollable. This is what a pandemic is," says Sviatlana.
Unlike COVID, a person infected with hantavirus usually does not transmit it airborne. Infection in such a case occurs through contact with biological fluids — for example, if the blood of a person with the virus gets into a wound of a healthy person.
"The likelihood of such infection compared to COVID is much lower, so there are no preconditions for a hantavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, if a person is infected, they should immediately seek medical attention, because the illness can be severe," explains the scientist.
As for the symptoms of infection, they resemble flu signs: elevated temperature, muscle and joint pain, headache, dizziness, nausea, or diarrhea.
Sviatlana Kabanava. Photo: interviewee's archive
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