A myth circulating online that "As the world is struggling with COVID-19 a disease caused by coronavirus, a new Hantavirus has claimed a life in China." is misleading.
One case of hantavirus was reported in the province of Shandong in a tweet by Chinese state media organisation Global Times on March 24, 2020.
According to AFP fact check, a similar claim that hantavirus is a "new virus" was shared by Australia-based Facebook users. The claim was also included on twitter which were viewed thousands of times. A similar claim was also viewed hundreds of thousands of times in videos shared by Indian media WION and ET Now.
The claim is false; scientists have said hantavirus is not new and was first detected during the Korean War in the 1950s.
This 2010 study titled “A Global Perspective on Hantavirus Ecology, Epidemiology, and Disease” was published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews.
It states: ”In the past century, two major outbreaks of disease led to the discovery of hantaviruses in the Old and New Worlds.
The first outbreak occurred during the Korean War (1950 to 1953), wherein more than 3,000 United Nations troops fell ill with Korean hemorrhagic fever, which is commonly referred to as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).”
Hantavirus is almost exclusively transmitted from rodents to humans, rather than from person to person, according to the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is a severe, sometimes fatal, respiratory disease in humans caused by infection with hantaviruses. Anyone who comes into contact with rodents that carry hantaviruses is at risk of HPS whose fatality is 38%
The hantaviruses that cause human illness in the United States cannot be transmitted from one person to another. In Chile and Argentina, rare cases of person-to-person transmission have occurred among close contacts of a person who was ill with a type of hantavirus called Andes virus,” the CDC says.
According to the state media, the man, a resident of Yunnan Province, died on a bus while travelling to Shandong Province for work on Monday.
The other 32 people on the same bus were also tested for the virus.
The Hantavirus which has similar symptoms to that of coronavirus is allegedly spread through urine, feces or saliva of the rodents.
Hantaviruses are a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents and can cause varied disease syndromes in people worldwide thus producing a hantavirus disease in people.
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the most effective preventive measure for Hantavirus is, controlling the population of the rodents.
The Early symptoms of HPS include fatigue, fever, and muscle aches, along with headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems.
If left untreated, it can lead to coughing and shortness of breath and can be fatal, with a mortality rate of 38 percent, according to CDC.
While the initial symptoms of HFRS too remain the same, it can cause low blood pressure, acute shock, vascular leakage, and acute kidney failure.
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