On the "Andes Virus" outbreak, here's what seems to be known at this point: There is an "International Hantavirus Society" that studies...

C3 Mastodon #hantavirus (mastodon.social) — real-time social commentary · 2026-05-15 · Argentina · ANDV

On the "Andes Virus" outbreak, here's what seems to be known at this point: There is an "International Hantavirus Society" that studies hantaviruses. The variant we are concerned with is called the "Andes" variant, and unlike other hantaviruses, this one can spread person-to-person. Before this variant, a person could only get sick by throwing into the air the dust from rodent poop - by sweeping up a dusty barn with a broom, for instance, or cleaning a basement, or disturbing any dark corner where mouse or rat poop accumulated - and in the process inhaling virus particles thrown into the air and become airborne, able to enter the nasal passage and lungs. Or by touching dirty cleaning equipment, rags, or floors, getting the virus on the hands or face, or tracking it into the house on shoes, etc. This Andes variant is different. You catch this variant from a person. It is airborne, aerosolized - it hangs and floats through the air like measles, chickenpox, flu, or covid. And you catch it the same way you catch a cold, or flu, or covid: an infected person exhales, and you then inhale their infected air. Most of what's known about the Andes virus is from a 2018 outbreak in Patagonia (hence the name "Andes") which led to 34 cases and 11 deaths. The International Hantavirus Society issued an important statement on May 8th, referencing that outbreak, making these points: • The precise timing of infectiousness remains incompletely defined. • Infected persons may be infectious/contagious before symptoms develop. • The 2018 outbreak had an R0 of 2.1 before strict quarantine measures were enforced (this is similar to Ebola. Measles, in contrast, has an R0 of 12-18, smallpox and polio R0 of 5-7) • Multiple person-to-person transmissions occurred without close contact • "On the basis of both the epidemiologic and genomic investigations of person-to-person transmission events, it appears that inhalation of aerosolized virions appear to have been the routes of infection." • Symptoms can appear up to eight weeks after exposure to an infectious person. • Initial symptoms are often mild and flu-like in the early prodromal stage. An infected person is *most* infectious during this early stage. • Following the "Superspreader Study" (the study of the 2018 outbreak) the UK classified the Andes Virus as an "Airborne High Consequence Infectious Disease" (HCID). • Current hantavirus tests can detect the viral RNA in a *symptomatic patient only,* beginning on the first day of symptoms. Tests will not detect the infection before symptoms appear, meaning that a person infected with hantavirus will test negative for the entire duration of the incubation period - possibly eight weeks - until symptom onset. This is important. The International Hantavirus Society emphasized: “A negative PCR result early after exposure should therefore NOT be interpreted as excluding later infection.” It looks like 176 people were on board the ship, including passengers and crew, from 29 countries. Thirty people disembarked in St. Helena on 24 April, when the ship stopped to transport to hospital the sickened wife of her husband who had died 13 days earlier. Two days later this woman died. She was symptomatic and most certainly infectious for several days at least, before leaving the ship. It is unknown who may have been infected by her, and may now be incubating the virus. The wave of cases that have so far emerged are likely from contact with her husband who died on 11 April. Given the incubation period is typically 2-8 weeks, we probably haven’t even seen the start of cases from those who came into contact with his wife. Symptoms may not emerge until mid-June. The 146 people who remained on the ship have since returned to their home countries.Once home they will be subject to their own country's protocols. # AndesVirus # Hantavirus # Pandemia Links to sources and more: https:// zenodo.org/records/20075274 https://www. nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM oa2009040 https://www. who.int/emergencies/disease-ou tbreak-news/item/2026-DON599 https:// edition.cnn.com/2026/05/08/hea lth/hantavirus-by-the-numbers https://www. gov.uk/guidance/high-consequen ce-infectious-diseases-hcid https://www. gov.uk/guidance/andes-hantavir us-epidemiology-outbreaks-and-guidance https://www. itv.com/news/2026-05-07/passen ger-says-hantavirus-outbreak-on-cruise-ship-could-have-been-prevented https://www. cdc.gov/media/releases/2026/20 26-cdc-provides-update-on-hantavirus-outbreak-linked-to-m-v-hondius-cruise-ship.html https://www. bbc.com/news/live/cy592qeq071t https:// archive.ph/uImkH https://www. who.int/emergencies/disease-ou tbreak-news/item/23-January-2019-hantavirus-argentina-en https://www. reuters.com/business/healthcar e-pharmaceuticals/singapore-tests-two-residents-hantavirus-after-cruise-outbreak-2026-05-08/ https://www. thelancet.com/journals/laninf/ article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00128-7/abstract blog roundups https://www. patreon.com/posts/hantavirus-c ovid-158228501 https:// tactnowinfo.substack.com/p/and es-hanta-virus-alert-the-global https:// lilscience.substack.com/p/the- next-two-weeks-are-critical-global https://www. patreon.com/posts/hantavirus-o n-mv-157506297 about misinfo https://www. mediamatters.org/coronavirus-c ovid-19/right-wing-figures-are-spreading-plandemic-conspiracy-theories-about

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