Amid the coronavirus outbreak, latest news suggest that there is a ‘new’ virus emerging in China after a man suddenly died on the bus. Following the investigation, the cause of the death was due to hantavirus.
The news spread after The Global Times, a state-controlled Chinese publication, tweeted about it. The tweet featured a photo of someone screened for COVID-19.
“A person from Yunnan Province died while he was on his way back to Shandong Province for work on a chartered bus on Monday. He tested positive for #hantavirus. Other 32 people on bus were tested,” the tweet says.
Soon after the publication, more and more people retweeted it and shared it to other social media platforms. Chain messages containing hoaxes about it also appeared on WhatsApp. Some news media also pour on the fire by publishing the news without further investigation.
People are starting to fear the possibility of ‘Coronavirus 2.0’ on social media. In reality, however, the hysteria is nonsensical.
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Why People Should Not Worry about Hantavirus
The currently circulating information pertinent to hantavirus is factually incorrect to some extent. While it is true that hantavirus comes from rodents such as rats and mice, much information pertaining to it is incorrect.
According to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hantavirus or hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is not new. The first case in the US might happen back in 1959.
Unlike COVID-19, hantavirus’ person-to-person transmission is incredibly rare. Most cases happened because humans injected the rodents’ body fluids by touching its feces or eating it.
“The #Hantavirus first emerged in 1950s in the American-Korean war in Korea (Hantan river). It spreads from rat/mice if humans injest their body fluids. Human-human transmission is rare. There were even vaccines developed for it. Please do not panic, unless you plan to eat rats,” neuroscientist Dr. Sumaiya Shaikh tweeted.
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