With the recent news of cruise ship passengers being quarantined for contracting or being exposed to Hantavirus, many people might be wondering what the threat level is for other people. For example, will Hantavirus come to Wisconsin?
People might ask other questions about this unfamiliar virus. How is it spread? According to Spectrum News 1, local experts said the threat to Wisconsinites should remain low. “It’s not a very contagious strain in itself,” said Brian Simmons, an infection preventionist at Emplify Health by Gundersen. “You have to have very close contact with someone that is having symptoms, so we don’t want to cause too much alarm to say that this is something that’s going to be out everywhere.”
Mr. Gibbons, a teacher at West Salem High School said, “it most likely will not spread because during covid 19 it was a person to person virus. The hantavirus doesn’t spread to person to person as fast as it did during covid as well as hantavirus has been around for many years and is not a new virus.”
According to the CDC, “as of May 18, no confirmed cases of Andes virus associated with the outbreak on the cruise ship have been reported in the United States. Therefore, the overall risk to the American public is still considered extremely low at this time.”
