Trump speaks out on controlling hantavirus outbreak as people share concerns it's the next Covid
Topics: Donald Trump, Health, US News
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Health, US News
Donald Trump has spoken out amid people's concerns about hantavirus spreading to the US after health officials said that America isn't prepared for an outbreak.
There have been concerns that we could be on the brink of another global pandemic following a hantavirus outbreak onboard a Dutch cruise ship that has so far claimed the lives of three people.
Amid people's fears, the World Health Organization has said that the virus is 'not the next Covid'.
WHO epidemic expert Maria Van Kerkhove said, per Sky News: "This is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease. Most people will never be exposed to this."
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It's believed that the strain of hantavirus that has spread on the ship is the Andes virus, which has an alarming 40 percent mortality rate.
Elsewhere she affirmed: "This is an outbreak on a ship and we do not anticipate a large epidemic."
Despite the WHO's reassurance, people are still undeniably nervous and President Trump was recently grilled about the virus from reporters.
"It's very much, we hope, under control," he said of the hantavirus outbreak, per Fox News. "There was the ship and I think we're going to make a full report on it tomorrow. We have a lot of great people studying it."
He added: "It should be fine – we hope."
When pressed further about it spreading in and around the US, Trump said that they'll do 'the best we can' to make sure that doesn't happen.
It's fortunate that it appears to be unlikely that hantavirus will cause another pandemic because Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, says the country is 'not prepared' to handle a hantavirus outbreak because of funding and staffing cuts made by the Trump administration.
"All of these things are really have profound, ripple effects," she said of the cuts to USA Today. "This is a situation where you really are seeing crystalized the need for bio-preparedness."
The WHO have recently shared advice on how people can prevent the spread of the virus.
It says that people should be:
The Andes strain of hantavirus is very rare. Microbiologist Dr Gustavo Palacios told CNN there have only ever been 3,000 known cases.
It is the only documented form of hantavirus with human-to-human transmission. One study showed that window for patients to be infectious was about a day, when they develop a fever. But they also found it was transmissible through only brief proximity to an infected person.
Andes virus (ANDV) is primarily found in South America and has a high fatality rate, between 20 and 40 percent. It can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which attacks the lungs. Symptoms start one to eight weeks after infection and the first signs can include:
Later symptoms include: