DDC to assess Hantavirus 'dangerous' status

Thailand’s National Communicable Diseases Committee has ordered a comprehensive study to be conducted on Hantavirus and risk assessments made to determine whether the virus should be classified as a dangerous communicable disease.

This comes following an outbreak on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde.

Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat said yesterday that the committee has assigned the Department of Disease Control (DDC) to coordinate with experts on the study and to make recommendations on preventive measures to cope with Hantavirus.

Viewed as a newly emerging disease, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, he said that Hantavirus infection has a mortality rate of between 30-40% and there is currently no specific cure or preventive vaccine.

Although not a single case of Hantavirus infection has been reported in Thailand to date, Pattana said rodents, especially rats, have been identified as carriers of the disease adding, however, that Hantavirus does not spread as easily as COVID-19.

Dr. Montien Kanasawat, director general of the DDC, said that Hantavirus can be transmitted from animals to humans through repeated contact with the urine, excrement or saliva of infected rodents.

It takes between 1 and 8 weeks since contact before symptoms emerge. The symptoms are divided into two groups: firstly, those with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and those with Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

The HFRS group will develop renal failure or bleeding (hematuria), a severe headache, back pain, stomach ache, vomiting and low blood pressure. The mortality rate is low between 1% and 15%.

The HPS group will develop severe lung disease, fatigue, muscle pain (myalgia), followed by breathing difficulties, coughing and chest pain after 4-10 days. Mortality ranges from 20-50%.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the spread of Hantavirus on the cruise ship does not mark the beginning of a pandemic like COVID-19, because the transmission is limited and through direct and intimate contact. Only three of the nine infected cruise ship passengers are confirmed to have died.