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Summary
A hantavirus scare aboard a cruise ship should remind us of our own role in increasing human vulnerability to viruses that can leap from one species to another—and nudge us to stay vigilant.
It seems like the script of a horror film. Three confirmed cases of hantavirus and five suspected ones among 150 people aboard a cruise ship that left Argentina last month have sent global health authorities into a tizzy.
Three of the eight are dead, as reported, and efforts are on to identify possible carriers among other passengers and those with whom the infected may have come in contact before showing symptoms.
Distant as all this seems, the covid nightmare was enough to ensure nobody takes such outbreaks lightly. After all, we were warned that climate change would make deadly pandemics likelier as tiny bugs would find it easier to hop from one species to another.
As of now, information on the hantavirus is patchy. Reports suggest that exposure involves the inhalation of airborne particles from the droppings of rodents that carry the virus. Human-to-human spread is thought to be rare but possible.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has a plan to de-board the passengers of the afflicted cruise liner safely once it reaches Spain in a few days. Nobody needs to panic. But we do need to step up our viral vigilance as we go about suffusing a once-healthy planet with pollutants.
English (US) ·