Hantavirus: Can it become a global epidemic like coronavirus?

New Delhi : The world is battling with a deadly COVID-19 virus that has brought the world to its knees while humans are finding a way to come out of it. While the scientists were trying to find a vaccine to cure coronavirus, a report of man testing positive with hantavirus and dying of it sent the world into panic mode with thousands of people searching about the disease and ways to battle it.

It has been learned that many people are feared with the thought that if this becomes new epidemic in the world then what will happen? Before coming to this point, let's know things about hantavirus first.

US-based Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has informed that the virus belongs to the family of hantaviruses and it spreads through rodents and causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or HP.

Currently, it is present in the rats in China.

HPS symptoms include fever, muscle ache, fatigue, dizziness – similar to those of influenza and coughing and shortening of breath can happen only when the infection reaches the lungs and fills it with liquid.

Now, when a man has died and several others have sent their samples for test, is it right to say that a new epidemic is set to explode? The answer is a big NO.

The CDC has informed that the hantavirus is far from becoming a global pandemic and the disease is transmitted only if someone comes in a close contact with rodent urine, saliva and droppings and the rare virus cannot be transmitted from one human to another.

The CDC further informed that there is no vaccine for treating HPS and the infected person needs to be immediately rushed to the intensive care unit of a hospital.

"The sooner a person gets intensive care, he will get better," the CDC informed.