r/hanta26

A look into one of the untraced cases, rightly pointing out the cruise passengers on this particular boat are rich and fetishize travel, and not your run of the mill swinger pensioner looking for an all inclusive.

This one went to an 'extreme traveler' conf in vietnam, multiple flights, and lives in Manhattan. No posts online since the 5th. Maybe dead in her apt, maybe just freaked people have found her. Seemingly uncontacted by the tracers

Have we made a big mistake by letting the passengers off? Comment your thoughts below.

If they truly feel like this won't turn into a full scale pandemic like COVID-19, and haven't declared one yet, why are they already working on a vaccine? Why are they contradicting themselves by telling everyone not to worry yet they are scrambling to do contact tracing in 12 countries and already working on a MRNA vaccine when they haven't even declared a global health emergency? Are these bad signs or just extra precautions they are taking to avoid another pandemic?

Another thing I don't understand is if it takes almost 8 weeks (2 months) to show symptoms.... 3 people out of the 8 confirmed cases have already died. We don't know if they had symptoms or not. Does this imply if people start dying for no reason with zero symptoms it was already too late since it takes 2 months for symptoms to appear? How does that even work? Is it only asymptomatic people who die or once symptoms appear then it's game over?

Lots of talk of evacuating the passengers? What about the crew? Cruise ships tend to have very large crews, sometimes as much as one crew per passenger and most of those come from 3rd world countries…

Here's some facts about Hantavirus; I hope this information will ease some of your potential worries:

The Hantavirus is a virus that is transmissible to humans through rodent feces, urine, and saliva. There are 2 major groups of the Hantavirus, Old World (found primarily in Europe, Asia) and New World (found in the Americas). The Old World group of Hantavirus are not transmissible from human-to-human. They primarily attack the kidneys, and they have a much lower mortality rate.

Then there's the New World Hantavirus, which is the group of the virus that is currently breaking out. The New World Hantavirus group has 2 major strains, which are the "Sin Nombre" and the "Andes". The Sin Nombre strain is not transmissible from human-to-human, however, the Andes is, which is the strain currently breaking out. The incubation period (the period of time where the virus is in a person's body, but they are not exhibiting symptoms) for the Andes virus typically lasts 9-40 days. During this incubation period, the Hantavirus is isolated to a person's bloodstream, and it is not believed to be contagious. Only until someone is actually exhibiting symptoms, like fever, headaches, etc., does the Andes virus become contagious because that means the virus has exited the bloodstream and is replicating in systems within the body that can transmit the virus.

There are two different types of viruses, naked and enveloped. Naked viruses only have a protein encasing, whilst enveloped viruses are encased in a lipid (fat) shell. The Andes virus is encased in a Lipid shell, which is comparable to viruses like Influenza and Covid. The Andes virus, in comparison to the other 2, is considered to be very fragile. Covid and Influenza are able to survive being dried out which gives them the ability to "glide" around on tiny aerosols and survive which gives it a highly contagious characteristic. The Andes virus, on the other hand, is highly sensitive. This means that, in cases of human virus shedding, the virus can only survive in droplets. These droplets, however, are much denser than aerosols, which means they will succumb to gravity and will drop directly to the ground, whereas viruses like Covid and Influenza will drift through the air for hours searching for a host.

Due to the above facts, and many others, experts believe that this is unlikely to become a global event, like Covid, because unlike Covid, due to the physical nature of the virus, the Andes virus is not nearly as contagious as Covid was. You would need to be within close physical contact (kissing, sharing utensils, sharing a bed, etc.) with someone who is visibly ill, or is just starting to exhibit symptoms, in order to come in contact with this virus. If you look at the nature of Covid, it was as contagious as it was because it was transmissible during the incubation period and it was able to survive for hours "gliding" through the air searching for its next host.

One last thing that categorizes this virus as "low risk" is its evolutionary pattern. Specifically, the genetic markers identified on the Andes virus that was on the cruise ship show that this virus has not gained any significant mutations. This is also different from Covid considering Covid was a novel virus which required us to slowly learn its characteristics that we were unaware of while it was rapidly spreading throughout the world.

I'm not a doctor, and this is purely for educational purposes. If anyone has any information they'd like to correct, please do so.

Edit: Just as a stubborn reminder, this post is a general understanding of the current scientific consensus. My word should not be taken as absolute truth; however, I did my absolute best to summarize the science as accurately as I could in plain English. Please remember to crosscheck and verify all facts with official public-health sources to ensure there are no mistakes, and once again, please feel free to correct any mistakes I may have made.

Hi everyone!

Been following the research that I can find online and came across this study from 2007.

Found it very interesting. 

The good news... the human to human transmission rate seems low and the study seems to show that you need contact with bodily fluids... but it also seems to show that asymptomatic spread is possible. ?

A 2007 prospective study in Chile investigated 476 household contacts of 76 Andes virus (ANDV) patients, finding that only 16 contacts (3.4%) developed Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS).  

The study highlighted that transmission was highest among sexual partners, proving that human-to-human transmission of the Andes strain occurs but is relatively rare, with most infections stemming from rodent exposure. 

Key Findings from the 476 Contact Study (Ferres et al.): 

Transmission Mechanism: While 32.6% of total cases in the study occurred in household clusters, the risk was primarily concentrated among sexual partners of the index patient. 

Low Secondary Rate: Of the 476 household contacts, only 16 (3.4%) developed the disease. 

Viremia Timing: Researchers detected ANDV RNA in blood cells 5–15 days before symptom onset or antibody appearance, indicating the potential for pre-symptomatic transmission. 

Significance: This study provided strong evidence of person-to-person transmission for the South American Andes hantavirus, distinguishing it from North American hantaviruses that do not typically spread between humans. [1, 2, 3, 4]

 Contextual Data (Chile Hantavirus Research): Andes Virus (ANDV): The primary cause of severe hantavirus cases in Chile, carried by the Oligoryzomys longicaudatus (long-tailed pygmy rice rat). 

Transmission Routes: Primarily through inhalation of aerosolized virus from rodent droppings, urine, or saliva in rural or forested areas. 

Symptoms: Starts like the flu, developing into rapid lung failure, heart problems, and high fatality rates (approx. 30–40% in some outbreaks).

 High Risk Factors: Close contact with infected persons, particularly sharing a bedroom or sexual contact. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] 

The study specifically mentioned is: Prospective Evaluation of Household Contacts of Persons with Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome in Chile (Published in Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2007). [1] VIRAL SHEDDING AND VIREMIA OF ANDV DURING ACUTE ... - PMC Jul 1, 2025 — Study design and participants Between 2008 and 2022, ANDV-infected cases were invited to participate in a prospective research study conducted in 10 collaborati... PubMed Central (PMC) (.gov)

Oceanwide Expeditions released their updated itinerary about how many passengers embarked/disembarked when and where on their journey. Does anyone know about the whereabouts of the American who disembarked on Ascencion Island together with their sick British partner? You can see on the website that they both supposedly got off the boat on April 27 on Ascencion Island “(\*\*) 1 symptomatic British national, 1 asymptomatic American national (partner of patient).”

They also interacted with people of Tristan da Cunha (April 13-16) shortly after patient zero had died on the boat (April 11).

On the boat was an Islander traveling as passenger who got off on the island and they picked up some islanders to help them get to St. Helena.
““The visit of the *Hondius* was more than just a cruise ship visits. She brought with her returning islander Conrad Glass, and kindly took away with her a family of islanders with her who are travelling overseas”

https://www.tristandc.com/shipping/news-2026-04-17-hondius.php

During their visit there they went to museums, a pub and 3 people from the boat visited a school.

https://www.tristandc.com/news-2026-04-20-hondiusschoolvisit.php