What is hantavirus and why were patients brought to Emory Hospital?
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ATLANTA - Health officials around the world are continuing to monitor passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship after a deadly outbreak involving the rare Andes strain of hantavirus.
The outbreak, which has been linked to multiple infections and several deaths, has raised questions about how hantavirus spreads, how passengers may have become infected and why some patients are being transported to highly specialized hospitals such as Emory University Hospital.
What is hantavirus?
What we know:
Hantavirus is not a single virus but a group of related viruses found around the world. The viruses are typically carried by rodents such as rats and mice, which often do not become sick themselves.
In North and South America, hantavirus infections can lead to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness that affects the lungs and can become life-threatening. Health officials estimate severe cases can carry a fatality rate of roughly 40%.
Symptoms often begin with flu-like signs including fever, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches and nausea. As the illness worsens, patients can develop coughing, chest tightness, breathing problems and fluid buildup in the lungs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says symptoms can appear anywhere from four days to six weeks after exposure.
How do people usually catch hantavirus?
What they're saying:
Most hantavirus infections occur when people inhale virus particles from rodent urine, droppings or saliva that have become airborne. Health experts say this can happen while cleaning contaminated spaces or spending time in areas infested with infected rodents.
The Andes strain connected to the cruise ship outbreak is different because it is the only known hantavirus capable of spreading from person to person, although experts stress this type of transmission remains rare.
According to the CDC and the World Health Organization, person-to-person spread generally requires prolonged, close contact with a symptomatic patient in enclosed settings.
How investigators think the outbreak started
Dig deeper:
Health officials do not believe the outbreak began directly on the ship itself because there were no reported rodent infestations aboard the vessel.
Instead, investigators suspect the first infected passengers may have been exposed earlier while traveling through Argentina and Chile before boarding the cruise ship. Officials said some passengers had participated in bird-watching trips and visited areas where rodents known to carry the Andes virus were present.
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Because hantavirus has a long incubation period, infected travelers may not have shown symptoms until days or weeks after boarding the ship. Experts believe close contact in confined spaces aboard the vessel may then have allowed the virus to spread to additional passengers.
The World Health Organization has called it the first known hantavirus outbreak associated with a cruise ship.
Why patients were brought to Emory Hospital in Atlanta
What we know:
Some patients tied to the outbreak are being sent to highly specialized infectious disease centers, including Emory University Hospital, because the hospital operates one of the world’s leading containment and treatment units for dangerous infectious diseases.
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Emory’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit was developed in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is specifically designed to care for patients with highly contagious or complex illnesses.
The hospital gained international recognition in 2014 after becoming the first U.S. hospital to treat Ebola patients during that outbreak. Since then, the facility has continued conducting national preparedness exercises and treating patients with serious infectious diseases.
Health officials continue to stress that the overall risk to the general public remains very low.
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