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Hantavirus May Survive in Human Sperm for up to Six Years and Cause a Transmission Risk

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Hantavirus can remain in human semen for up to six years and has the potential for sexual transmission even after a person has recovered, according to a peer-reviewed study.

The discovery means male patients are likely to be advised to change their sexual practices as happens with other viruses such as Ebola, which also survives in the sexual tract.

The research was conducted at the Spiez Laboratory, a Swiss government institute tasked with fighting nuclear, biological and chemical threats, and published in the journal Viruses.

They investigated a Swiss 55-year-old man who had become infected with the Andes strain of the hantavirus in South America six years earlier.

They found that although there was no longer any trace of the virus in man’s blood, urine and respiratory tract, it was still detectable in his semen 71 months later. (Read more from “Hantavirus May Survive in Human Sperm for up to Six Years and Cause a Transmission Risk” HERE)

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Hantavirus Patient in Critical Condition after Doctors Dismissed Symptoms as ‘Anxiety’

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A French woman who tested positive for hantavirus after disembarking from the virus-stricken cruise ship is now in critical condition after doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as anxiety.

The passenger’s condition started to deteriorate rapidly after she was finally able to leave the ill-fated MV Hondius vessel when it docked in Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday, the Guardian reported.

The woman had initially developed flu-like symptoms on the luxury liner but appeared to be recovering — prompting doctors to speculate she was likely anxious or stressed amid the deadly outbreak.

“They were not thinking that these symptoms were compatible with hantavirus. Why? Because what she was telling [them] was [that she had] an episode of coughing some days ago that had disappeared, and what she was having at that moment was kind of like stress or anxiety or nervousness. So it was not catalogued [as hantavirus],” said Spanish Health Minister Javier Padilla Bernáldez.

The woman, who was one of five French passengers who left the ship on Sunday, was flown to a hospital in Paris, where her condition worsened overnight. (Read more from “Hantavirus Patient in Critical Condition after Doctors Dismissed Symptoms as ‘Anxiety’” HERE)

CDC: Risk of Cruise Ship Hantavirus Spreading to U.S. Public Is ‘Low’

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified the hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship as “Level 3” – the lowest level of emergency activation in the agency’s hierarchy of responses.

That, according to ABC sources, signifies the risk to the general public “remains low,” though the outbreak is currently being actively monitored by the public health agency, which has also “activated” its Emergency Operations Centers in response to the threat.

Spanish authorities on Friday were preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands, an outbreak which has generated headlines in both the United States and Europe.

There are an estimated 17 Americans aboard the ship, CNN reported.

ABC7 reported that the agency will be dispatching personnel to the Canary Islands for the ship’s arrival on Sunday. Any Americans onboard will be taken to a National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska. (Read more from “CDC: Risk of Cruise Ship Hantavirus Spreading to U.S. Public Is ‘Low’” HERE)

Health Officials Think They’ve Tracked Down Source of Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak

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Two MV Hondius passengers who died from hantavirus likely contracted the deadline infection while bird-watching in Argentina, investigators believe – then brought it on board the now-stranded cruise ship.

Argentine officials say a Dutch couple that succumbed to the virus last month picked it up from rodents while visiting a landfill during a bird-watching tour in the city of Ushuaia in mid-March, they told the Associated Press Wednesday.

However, there’s one big hole in the theory. Authorities previously said that the area and the surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a case of the hantavirus.

The passengers then boarded the MV Hondius, which departed on its 35-day-long expedition trip from the Argentine port on March 20.

Hantavirus is usually transmitted by inhaling the virus from infected feces or urine from mice or rats.

The 70-year-old Dutchman reportedly began feeling sick on April 6, with a fever, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea. (Read more from “Health Officials Think They’ve Tracked Down Source of Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak” HERE)