Infecting rodents, humans could also die if infected with the infamous hantavirus. (Image via Kompas.com)

COVID-19 ain't over yet, Hantavirus haunts the world

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Mar 25, 2020
1961
On Monday in Ningshan district, Shaanxi Province, Northwest China, an official local authority website stated that there was a worker found dead on a bus. It was later revealed that the male worker was found dead while returning to Shandong province by bus.

The news was later spread through Chinese social media, Weibo. The cause of death was not the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) but another virus, called hantavirus.

Later on, at least 32 bus passengers were tested to confirm whether the virus was transmitted human-to-human.

The local government of Ningshan told the story as follows: at 11 p.m. local time, a bus belonging to Shandong Leasing Limited Longwei was filled with only two drivers, one medical practitioner, and 30 workers from Mengding city returning to Shandong.

When passing through Ningshan district, the medical practitioner assisted a worker who claimed that he did not feel well. The worker’s name was Tian Moumou. Eventually, the medical practitioner called the 120 to ask for help.

A medical team finally arrived to check on Moumou, found out that he showed fever and other pneumonia-related symptoms. The male worker finally breathed his last in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province.

The good news was that the cause of death had nothing to do with the COVID-19. It was a generally known virus, hantavirus. The other workers were requested to undergo the nucleic acid test.

This hantavirus is the same virus that resulted in hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), dengue fever, and even hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The virus is not transmitted airborne, but it could transfer if people touch urine, feces, saliva, or bitten by the host of hantavirus, most commonly, rodents.

The initial symptoms of hantavirus infection include fever, muscle cramp, headache, nausea, dizziness, and stomachache. If it is not treated immediately, it will be fatal with a 38 percent mortality rate.

Source: https://bit.ly/2y27u01

Medical , Health , Pandemic , Disease , Hantavirus , Dengue-Fever , HFRS , HPS , Pulmonary , COVID-19