The head of the World Health Organization has warned countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius, and thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and evacuating its passengers and crew.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to follow the WHO’s advice and recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and constant monitoring of high-risk contacts.

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak, but of course the situation could change and, given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks,” he told a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday.

    • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
      0·
      13 days ago

      Oh this is colossally worse. Is that a word? It is now. This has basically a few days where you’re ‘fine’ w/ cold symptoms, and next thing you know you’re dead.

      • caboose2006@lemmy.world
        0·
        13 days ago

        Yeah, but unless you’re making out with an infected person, ya ain’t getting hantavirus. This will not be COVID 2. I’d be surprised if 30 people total get infected from this “outbreak”

        • michaelmrose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          It specifically infects the lungs. The normal method of transmission WAS stir up rodent shit breath in the aerosolized particles get sick with no route between person A to B. If its passing from human to human we have no idea how transmissible it is or as it evolves in a larger population of people than ever before how transmissible it will become.

          We also need to know when in that long ass incubation period you become capable of spreading it. Ideally its when you become visibly sick but who fucking knows. If its much earlier it could be a fucking disaster.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak

    I’d fucking hope so…

    If we see signs of a larger outbteak, it’s already too late. This has 40% mortality rate under the best conditions when dealing with isolated cases, and an R factor over two (1 is where its infectious enough to cause wifescale problems)

    This is like Y2k all over again. We need to take it seriously and if we do a bunch of idiots will think that means we didn’t need to.

    But if we let the idiots win and don’t take it seriously, then we’re all fucked

    I’ll never understand why the idiots get so fucking triggered that someone else is worried about something and trying to protect them.

    If people don’t think this is a big deal and there’s no reason for anyone to worry, then they can just ignore the entire thing on a personal level.

    Instead they feel insulted if anyone disagrees with them, because that’s what idiots do.

    They don’t care about if they’re right, they just get mad if anyone disagrees with them about anything.

    • YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world
      0·
      14 days ago

      Shouldn’t a mask be extremely effective against this virus? So it should be easy to protect yourself I would think.

      It will probably also be a form of natural selection for those that refuse to wear one.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        14 days ago

        Any mask is better than no mask…

        But look at the type the WHO was wearing (full on body suits), or the plastic “iron lung” tents the Spanish are using when someone pops positive.

        I really don’t know if COVID era masks would do anything or not.

        It’ll be like COVID at best, where wearing a mask doesn’t prevent you from being infected, but a mask drastically reduces who you infect.

        So, masks would only work if everyone is wearing them. One asymptomatic idiot that refuses to even get tested would infect everyone they walk past.

        • YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world
          0·
          14 days ago

          Well yeah I would expect the WHO doctors to take every precaution they can especially because they are the ones studying it. But from my understanding this virus spreads through saliva and small liquid particles that are expelled from talking, coughing, or sneezing. I would think that a mask would help a ton in preventing these liquid particles from entering your system. You would also want to wash your hands frequently too especially before eating.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
            01·
            14 days ago

            But from my understanding this virus spreads through saliva and small liquid particles that are expelled from talking, coughing, or sneezing.

            …

            You mean like COVID?

            Or literally every respiratory infection?

            If a group is all wearing masks, no one is exhaling breath with those droplets, and everyone is safe.

            If only infected people wear a mask, everyone is safe.

            If a single infected person doesn’t wear a mask, they can infect people still wearing masks.

            Rather than try to explain the details, think of your eyeballs, if an infected person breath lands on your eyeballs, how does a mask protect you?

            If the viral load they’re shedding lands on your face, hands, literally anything besides the inside of your nose or mouth, what do you think happens to it?

            Masks work by preventing it from coming out of an infected person’s face holes, it doesn’t magically form a bubble around a healthy person making them immune…