Hantavirus is all over the news these last few days so we wanted talked to Alaska's State Epidemiologist about what this means and how worried should Alaskans be
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is heading to Spain’s Canary Islands after being stranded for five days off the coast of Cape Verde.
The World Health Organization confirms five of the eight suspected cases from the cruise ship have tested positive. Three people have died. The Associated Press is reporting about 30 people left the cruise ship after the first death on board. Alaska’s State Epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin said the hantavirus is found in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The strain contracted by people on board the cruise ship is called the Andes strain. While it is transferable between humans, unlike the flu or COVID-19, brief contact does not typically lead to infection.
“So this is a serious outbreak, but it’s highly contained. And it involves a rare strain of hantavirus that has limited human to human transmission. It’s not something that’s efficiently transmitted from humans to humans. It can be, but it takes more prolonged exposure, so that’s really favorable in terms of the larger public health perspective,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said the people who left the cruise ship are being monitored and none of them are currently in Alaska. Plane crashes near Knik Glacier, pilot seriously injuredAnchorage woman appears in court on murder charge in mother’s deathAlaska cancer survivor creates online resource to help others navigate diagnosis
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