A cruise ship outbreak of hantavirus has rattled the public and reignited fears of another global health scare as passengers disperse across multiple countries, including the U.S. The World Health Organization reported 11 cases linked to the outbreak as of Tuesday, nine of which it confirmed, including three deaths. No Americans have tested positive as of Wednesday.Other passengers are being monitored in specialized medical units, including 18 in the U.S. across Nebraska and Atlanta. A handful of people not connected to the cruise are also being evaluated for possible exposure across several states. Treatments specifically for hantavirus are still years away: Shares of Moderna rallied around 12% on Friday after it confirmed it was conducting early research on a potential vaccine to protect against hantavirus. But as the number of exposed individuals and public concern grow, health experts aim to tamp down fears of another pandemic. Their message: This is not Covid-19 all over again. Unlike Covid, measles or the flu, the specific Andes strain of hantavirus in the outbreak does not spread easily between people, making the risk of widespread spillover to the public low. More cases could emerge in the coming weeks because hantavirus has a long incubation period, experts said.Still, “we are not expecting a large number of infections and they will likely remain limited to passengers who were exposed aboard the ship, especially now that we have containment measures in place,” Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist and an infectious disease physician at the University of Florida, said in an interview. Crew members of the “Hondius” arrive at Eindhoven airport in the evening in two aircraft, including a German crew member. Christoph Reichwein | Picture Alliance | Getty ImagesBut for other experts, the outbreak is raising broader concerns about how equipped the U.S. is to respond to future infectious disease threats, particularly after major cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration’s move to withdraw from the WHO last year.While experts say the CDC appears to have the hantavirus outbreak under control, some warn that the situation exposed cracks in the nation’s public health infrastructure that could carry greater consequences in the face of a more contagious pathogen.”I’m not expecting any significant risk to the American public. But if this is a stress test, we failed this,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health law at Georgetown University. “Just imagine if this were actually a highly …
