There is no specific treatment or vaccine against hantavirus infection.
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Yeah, my daughter and I have been discussing this.
Being from New Mexico, hantavirus is familiar to us. D actually treated a case of a young man with HPS (hantavirus pulmonary syndrome) when she was a senior med student. She worked with the doctor who developed the treatment protocol that’s most commonly used to treat HPS in the US and worldwide. She also worked with a virologist researching hantaviruses during high school. (She got to handle infected mice. I was not thrilled with by that…)
HPS is bad and it can kill quickly–in under 24 hours in some cases. There are no medications to treat the virus. There are only supportive measures (intubation, heart-lung bypass, echmo) until the patient’s own immune system can defeat the virus, assuming the patient doesn’t develop irreversible organ damage first.
Direct human-to-human transmission is rare. An infected person would have cough droplets directly into one’s mouth or eyes to infect another human. Or an infected individual would have to have penetrative sexual intercourse with another individual. (Yes, hantavirus is sexually transmissible. This mode of transmission is incredibly, incredibly rare mostly because by the time a patient is infectious they are also incredibly sick.)
The latest report indicates that ship’s physician is critically ill with hantavirus and has been evacuated from the ship, leaving no one who really knows anything about dealing with hantavirus aboard the ship. (And the doctor, who British, has likely never seen a case of hantavirus in his entire career. May not have even heard of it or learned about it since it’s not endemic to the UK.)
The crew has been cleaning surfaces, but hard surface cleaning won’t really remove the infection sources–which is likely to be mouse urine in soft materials like carpet or in the linen storage areas aboard the ship.
And meanwhile, the mice aboard the ship (and there are always mice aboard ships) are busy doing what mice do—breeding another generation of infected mice. (Mice are carriers; they don’t become ill or die if infected.)
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As a P.S.
The NM State epidemiology office completed a thorough study of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa’s house in Santa Fe foothills after their deaths.
They found the house has a serious mouse infestation. That’s how Ms. Arakawa got infected with hantavirus.
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It’s been reported that a person who sat next to patient zero on a plane now has hantavirus
I think the concern is that this is human to human contact. I don’t think it’s from mice on board the ship.
The couple who brought the virus on board the ship caught it bird watching in Argentina. Human to human contact is only this particular hantavirus in the Andes.
I hope this can be contain quickly so that it doesn’t become a bigger problem.
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The hantavirus, even the Argentinian variety, is spread by aerosolize virus particles.
Wearing a basic face mask (a procedure/surgical mask) like the kind you might wear to prevent the flu, will prevent transmission.
You don’t need a N-95/KN-95.
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My understanding from the reporting today is that they (the WHO, I think, but I would need to check) has determined that this is human-to-human transmission. No mice/rats have been seen and none have been caught in traps on the ship. It sounds like this is not a case of “mice doing what mice do.”
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Latest I heard was that on a birding expedition in southern Argentina (?), they were taken to a landfill, where exposure to rodent feces may have occurred.
What horrible luck, as hanta is very difficult to contract.
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We had dinner last night with some friends who told us that their close friends, a couple in their 60s, is onboard the ship. The cruise is a long, transatlantic expedition-type sailing mainly populated by avid birders. The ship will apparently be received in the Canary Islands in 2/3 days, where the healthy passengers will remain on the boat in quarantine for around 45 days.
Who knew birding could be a dangerous hobby 
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45 days!!! 
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It has an 8 week incubation period apparently! Our info is obviously secondhand, but it sounded like the passengers have had very little information from the cruise operators and are relying on their communication with friends and family to fill them in.
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Best comment on the below gift-linked article:
This is looking like the Hondius mutation of h. Andes – how does a flight attendant with one hour of contact with one passenger acquire Andes? She doesn’t. If she tests positive, that suggests, if not actually airborne, at least fast particulate-borne. Not good. Will get a clearer picture of the R soon with more data… while I hope not (not positive test), it will at least clarify things. Also, will get a clearer picture of the incubation time; at this point “up to three weeks but as little as 5 days” is looking like a reasonable approximation. Checked Ushuaia region for unreported similar cases? Sampled air handling system on Hondius? Mice nest in some odd places. Good luck, everyone.
If accurate in the instant matter, then the carrier of the virus may have been infected prior to boarding the cruise ship (if the ship had been at sea for less than 8 weeks when the virus appeared).
Are you sure with respect to all varieties/strains of the hantavirus ?
Please read the last two sentences of the CNN article cited above.
The hypothesis is that the first patient(s) were infected on land, in Argentina. The cruise is a birdwatching one, and several people went to a spot in Argentina (a dump? Can’t remember) to birdwatch where there also is a rodent infestation. The best guess at the moment is that someone was infected there, vs infection being caused by an onboard mouse infestation.
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Right. However, the reality is that these thoughts are little more than “best guesses” at the moment.
The theory seemingly contradicts the current belief that the Andes strain is most contagious during the first day that one is infected.
Too much is unknown at this time.
No cruises for me.
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The other question I have. Did other passengers of this cruise go on that particular bird watching excursion? What about the guide?
We should assume that the ship doctor did not and also the person who contracted hantavirus on the plane but the contact tracing on this will be very interesting.
I hear that patient zero tried to fly home while quite ill but was removed from the plane and that’s how the person on the flight contracted hantavirus.
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Ugh.
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Of course, the ship’s physician presumably had close contact with the patients with the virus, so even if it is “not that contagious”, the ship’s physician would be one of those with higher risk of catching something from an infected person.
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Also if the physician is unfamiliar with the hantavirus or not expecting to see a patient with hantavirus, they wouldn’t know to follow droplet precautions and wear a protective mask or other PPE when examining the patient.
Hantavirus’s initial symptoms are vague and much like those of many other viruses and infections: “flu-like symptoms” —fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches, headache…
Patient zero (first known case) died aboard the ship. Patient zero’s wife disembarked and attempted to fly home from South Africa, but was removed from the plane, not because she appeared to be sick, but because of her generally weak and unstable demeanor. She arrived for the flight in a wheelchair and seemed disoriented.
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