A week ago, most people had probably never heard of hantavirus. Now, millions of people are likely wishing they hadn’t. Judging from a slew of panicked social media posts and endless versions of the same explainers on “how worried should you be?” there is a genuine fear that we could be in for another pandemic. It’s not hard to understand why people freaking out. Even the virus name sounds scary, haunting.
An outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has so far infected eight people, killing three of them: a German woman and a Dutch couple. They were traveling via the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde when passengers became ill with high fever and gastrointestinal symptoms. The boat was anchored off the African coast as the World Health Organization stepped in to investigate and passengers were slowly screened and sent home. Of the 17 Americans returning home, two tested positive — one “mildly” and the other with light symptoms.
