Beijing: It is not just that you have to aware of the coronavirus threat; there are other viruses that can endanger your life. Swine and bird flu cases have already been reported from India while a man in China has died of hantavirus.
The question that rise in already panic-stricken minds is whether another new virus has surfaced after COVID-19. Well don’t worry it is a rare and exceptional case and cannot be called by pandemic.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) here, hantaviruses are a family of viruses which are spread mainly by rodents and can cause varied diseases in people. Thankfully the disease is not airborne. People are only infected by the virus if they come in contact with urine, feces, and saliva of rodents and also by a bite from an infected host.
China’s ‘Global Times’ tweeted Tuesday that a man from Yunnan died while on his way back to Shandong for work on a bus Monday due to hantavirus. Thirty two other people on the bus were also tested for the virus and all have tested negative.
People infected by hantavirus, can suffer from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).
Early symptoms of HPS include fatigue, fever, and muscle aches, along with headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems. If left untreated, it can lead to coughing and shortness of breath and can be fatal, with a mortality rate of 38 percent, according to CDC.
While the initial symptoms of HFRS too remain the same, it can cause low blood pressure, acute shock, vascular leakage, and acute kidney failure. HPS can’t be passed on from person to person, while HFRS transmission between people is extremely rare.
Agencies
