KEY POINTS

  • The recent news of the death of a man in China due to Hantavirus alarmed people
  • The world is still grappling to find a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic, and another outbreak could annihilate the world's population
  • But experts clarified that hantavirus is different from COVID-19

Just recently, the state-run publication Global Times reported about the death of a man due to Hantavirus. The news sent fears and worries to people all over the world who are still trying to calm themselves from the COVID-19 pandemic. What is Hantavirus, and should the world be worried about another possible outbreak?

New Hantavirus Death Details

Global Times reported that the man, only known by his surname, Tian, was on his way to Shandong in the eastern part of China to work. He began feeling unwell and was immediately sent to a hospital located in Ningshan county in Shannxi Province. The initial report suggested that he died on the bus and was tested positive for Hantavirus. However, the site now reports that the patient died in the hospital.

The first report on Monday claimed that 32 passengers on the same bus where the patient died were also screened for Hantavirus, but today's report from the same site claims that 29 fellow passengers were tested with pending results. All of them were tested for COVID-19 and came back negative, the site adds.

A health worker carries a body on a stretcher outside Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid
A health worker carries a body on a stretcher outside Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid AFP / OSCAR DEL POZO

Should You Be Worried?

The report triggered fears and speculations, considering that the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have begun from a germ transferring from an animal to a human being before it reached other countries all over the world. But, unlike COVID-19, there is an extremely rare chance that people could get the virus, according to the CDC. Although there were cases reported in the past, most of these happened to people with close contact with the urine, feces, or bitten by an infected rodent.

Wuhan University Virologist Yang Zhanqui said that "there is no need to worry about the hantavirus." He told Newsweek that "Hantavirus disease is preventable and controllable and there are vaccines to prevent it. Its incidence in urban cities is very low as the disease is mainly found in rural villages where rats tend to appear when people are working in the field." yang added that "Hantavirus disease is preventable and controllable and there are vaccines to prevent it. Its incidence in urban cities is very low as the disease is mainly found in rural villages where rats tend to appear when people are working in the field."

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