Santa Clara County Resident Exposed to Deadly Hantavirus on Ship, Officials Say | KQED

"Andes hantavirus is part of a family of viruses that spreads mostly through the urine, feces and saliva of rodents, but in rare cases, can be transmitted person to person through repeated, close contact with someone who is ill. Hantavirus can cause serious diseases in humans, CDPH said."

"According to state health officials, daily protocol includes temperature checks and assessment for any relevant symptoms. There are no known cases of asymptomatic Andes hantavirus. "This is not something you would contract through casual contact at Starbucks or Trader Joe's," said Matt Willis, a Bay Area-based epidemiologist and the former head of Marin's public health department for a decade."

"Willis said the Santa Clara passenger is not experiencing symptoms, and is isolated at home with twice-daily monitoring. He said it's likely that they are not infected. "Transmissibility is low," he told KQED Monday. "We don't know the exact nature of the exposure of this individual on board before they disembarked, but it was not likely to be that kind of intimate exposure that we've already seen in secondary cases.""

"Among those on the ship who have been infected, he said, are people who were in close contact with the initial patients, including the ship's primary doctor. As a Bay Area resident, Willis said, he's confident that his own family is safe. "I think we all carry this experience of a pandemic close," he told KQED. "These kinds of stories - the cruise ship, a respiratory illness being spread from person to person - obviously invokes a lot of fear. It's important to remember that this is not COVID.""

Andes hantavirus is a rodent-associated virus that spreads mostly through urine, feces, and saliva. Serious disease can occur in humans. Rare person-to-person transmission can happen only through repeated, close contact with someone who is ill. Daily monitoring protocols include temperature checks and symptom assessment. No known cases involve asymptomatic infection. An epidemiologist said casual contact in public places is not a realistic route of transmission and that risk is limited to very close contacts such as household members. A reported passenger is isolated at home with twice-daily monitoring and is not experiencing symptoms, and transmissibility is considered low. The infected people on the ship were described as having close contact with initial patients, including the primary doctor.

Read at Kqed