A Chinese man who died mysteriously while traveling to Shandong province for work tested positive for hantavirus. According to Global Times, China’s official media, he was a resident of Yunnan province.
The hantavirus death has stirred up a storm on social media, becoming one of the top trending topics on Twitter on Tuesday.
There were 32 passengers on the chartered bus in which the infected person traveled. Efforts are on to test his co-passengers.
Rodents are the only known reservoirs of hantavirus, named after river Hantan. A person infected with hantavirus could develop hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a severe, sometimes fatal, respiratory disease.
Rodent carriers can shed the virus in their urine, droppings and saliva, persistently or intermittently. Humans coming into contact with a rodent carrier could contract the infection. One can get the disease just by being around a rat that is a carrier because of airborne transmission.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Infection, “Anyone who comes into contact with rodents that carry hantaviruses is at risk of HPS. Rodent infestation in and around the home remains the primary risk for hantavirus exposure. Even healthy individuals are at risk for HPS infection if exposed to the virus.’’
Symptoms of HPS include fever, fatigue, chills, headaches, dizziness, muscle aches, and abdominal problems, such as nausea, and vomiting. There is no vaccine for HPS. “However, we do know that if infected individuals are recognised early and receive medical care in an intensive care unit, they may do better. In intensive care, patients are incubated and given oxygen therapy to help them through the period of severe respiratory distress,” says CDC.
The 'Four Corners' in the Southwestern United States witnessed an outbreak of HPS in 1993. In one instance, an apparently healthy man developed breathing problems and died. The disease was passed on from rodents to human beings. There are no known cases of human to human transmission of HPS in the US. However, cases of person-to-person transmission have been reported, though rarely, in Chile and Argentina.
