The Hanta Outbreak

Yesterday was 9 May, so... С Днём Победы!

However though, today's topic is not the day when the USSR defeated Germany.

This blog entry covers the recent hantavirus outbreak (which is called «The Hanta Outbreak» on the title!), which may affect your life in the future (or not, I don't know).

«So, what happened?»

On the first of April, a cruise ship departed from the southernmost city of the world — Ushuaia, Argentina. The luxury ship was (actually is) «MV Hondius». Those on board planned to visit Antarctica and some more islands. But none of they expected that the ship carried a dangerous disease that would casue misery later on...

The first to die was a 70-year-old Dutchman, on 11 April. He had started showing symptoms since 6 April. Everyone thought he died due to natural causes. His body was then taken off the ship, as it arrived at Saint Helena. Some people also left the ship and returned home, one of whom was the 69-year-old widow of the late Dutchman. The widow took a plane to South Africa and then boarded another flight to go back the Netherlands, but she was removed from the plane due to her medical condition, before she died in a hospital on the same day.

Anyway, Hondius continued on to the Ascension Island, where a Briton was removed and was flown to South Africa for hospital care as he was ill. The ship left the island on 27 April. Another person, who was a German woman this time, died on board, and her body is still on the ship as I am writing those line. Only at this moment was the outbreak to be identified.

The ship then docked in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde on 3 May. The Cape Verdean government created an isolation area to help with the treatment of the ship's passengers and crew. Around the same time, South African officials began contact tracing, and the Andes virus (one of the viruses that cause hantavirus infection) was identified in one of the infected by 4 May. The ship intended to travel to Tenerife, an island of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community within Spain. However, Canarian President was like «Nah, we're not getting that shi into our land», but the Spanish Ministry of Health approved the ship's arrival anyway.

«So, what's that „hantavirus infection”?»

Acordding to Wikipedia, hantavirus infections are caused by the Orthohantavirus genus of viruses, one of which is the Andes virus that I've mentioned. Its onset can be up to 8 weeks following exposure. The disease may lead to 2 syndromes: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), whose risk of death is around 12% and around 40% respectively.

HPS is due to hantaviruses that are from the American continents, of which Argentina, the country from where Hondius departed, is a part. Um that sounds pretty awkward and unnatural, doesn't it? Well, in case you feel so, give me another shot: Argentina is a part of South America. North and South America are home to hantaviruses that cause the most lethal form of the disease. And that ship departed from Argentina.

Since I haven't played the Plague Inc. scenario about this virus (I doubt there's one about it), so I'm unsure about the virus' infectivity, but I've heard that it's pretty low, so it should be fine.

The Hondius problem

So, many ports have rejected to let the Hondius dock because of the disease. Morally, we should let them go back land. Of course, they are people, just like us, and we have the duty to protect and save our fellows.

But logically? Nah just blow that shi up, we ain't letting any pandemic happen again. «But.. but they have families...» we also have families, too! Better die some than die a lot.

Something about diseases after COVID-19

This might be off-topic, but do you guys ever think about the fact that after the COVID-19 pandemic, many diseases have also threatened to spread, such as a coronavirus making a «comeback» or the Nipah virus that I've covered in one of the previous Random stuffs entry? By the way, I wonder how has that outbreak been going.

None of the diseases has actually spread. So, what do you guys think? Will this outbreak be another false alarm, or will it bring us back to online classes?