Hantavirus outbreak is a wake-up call to focus on preparedness
Although the hantavirus outbreak is not another new coronavirus, it does represent an increased risk from virus spills from animals.
Six years after COVID-19 swept the world, the news is once again abuzz with reports of the deadly disease.
A deadly hantavirus infection has struck the cruise ship MV Hondius, forcing American passengers into long-term quarantine in Nebraska. Then, last weekend, an Ebola outbreak shook Central Africa and prompted the World Health Organization to declare it a public health emergency. Both outbreaks, while serious, have not reached pandemic levels, the organization said.
But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken seriously, says Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine. Ultimately, he says, these pathogens indicate important trends about the state of our world when it comes to disease. That means zoonotic spillovers, or outbreaks caused by viruses that spread from animals to humans, are becoming more common. In fact, Hotez says you can expect it to happen every year or so.
There’s no need to panic. But it’s a wake-up call.
“The most important message about this particular hantavirus outbreak is what it represents,” Hotez says. “All of the major epidemics of the past 20 years have been largely zoonotic spillover events. … This is a wake-up call, but new infections are emerging.”
Disease outbreaks from animals are becoming more common. why?
Recent hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks both resulted from pathogens that spread from animals to humans, Hotez points out. Hantaviruses are usually transmitted to humans through rodent feces or saliva, while Ebola tends to be transmitted from animals such as fruit bats and porcupines.
“This is our new normal,” Hotez says of zoonotic disease spillovers. “We should expect large-scale zoonotic spillover events and severe epidemics to occur every year, every two years, every three years.”
why is that? Hotez says medical experts can’t say for sure. However, one possibility is climate change, which may increase interactions between humans and wildlife.
“Climate change has an important role to play,” Hotez said. “With rising temperatures, changing climate patterns, changing weather patterns, changing rainfall patterns, what’s happening now is that animal hosts are moving in search of new habitats to improve access to food and shelter.”
Another potential factor is urban population growth, he says.
“Not only are bats and rats getting closer to people, but people are getting closer to bats and rats,” Hotez said. “We are now starting to see the formation of megacities of 10, 15, 20 million or more people, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and with that comes deforestation. That means people are moving closer to animal habitat.”
“We need to prepare.”
So what can we do about the rise in zoonotic disease spillover events? Hotez encourages health authorities to act preemptively by working on vaccines and treatments for potential future diseases.
“We need to be prepared. With the spread of zoonotic diseases becoming the new normal, now is the time to strengthen our infrastructure,” he says. “We need to develop new strategies against these diseases and improve our ability to develop better diagnostics and better antiviral drugs. And, of course, we need to have vaccines available for all of these and treatments using monoclonal antibodies.”
This should also apply to the Andean strain of hantavirus. in front It hit the MV Hondius cruise ship, he said.
“They should have had Andes virus vaccines available to vaccinate those at risk on board, both passengers and crew, but they did not do so,” Hotez said. “This reflects our lack of preparedness, both on a regional, national and international scale.”
Contribution: Dana Taylor, excerpt
