KEY POINTS

  • Recently, a state-sponsored publication reported about the death of a man who showed COVID-19 like symptoms but was diagnosed with Hantavirus
  • It triggered fears and panic among Twitter users considering that the world is still suffering from COVID-19 pandemic
  • Some Twitter users could not help but vent out their frustrations towards China

The COVID-19 pandemic closed borders, paralyzed transportation, shut down plants and offices, and kept people at home. Scientists are still finding ways to develop a vaccine and medical frontliners are risking their lives to provide care for over 500,000 patients infected by the COVID-19. There is a current conspiracy theory that the Chinese were responsible for the COVID-19, but the news of a Chinese man’s death due to a new virus received scathing and even racists comments from people online.

Hantavirus Trended Online

A few days ago, Global Times reported about the death of a man in China who showed COVID-19 like symptoms but was diagnosed positive of Hantavirus. The state-run site revealed the inside track through a post on Twitter and shared that all the other 32 passengers on the bus where the dead patient rode were all tested for Hantavirus. The tweet attracted the attention of Twitter users, and the term #Hantavirus trended online.

It not only triggered fears and panic but also frustrations of some users towards the Chinese people. Some are mad at the Chinese for their penchant for eating exotic animals, which they blame for the emergence of deadly viruses like the COVID-19.

Hantavirus
A 9-year-old boy, Fernando Hernandez, became the second person to contract the Hantavirus from Farmington, New Mexico. In this representational image, a sample taken from a bird at a live poultry market in New York City is drawn from a tube, at Cornell University's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Ithaca, New York, Feb. 23, 2006. Getty Images/ STAN HONDA

Is Hantavirus as Deadly As COVID-19?

According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, “Hantaviruses are a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents and can cause varied disease syndromes in people worldwide. Infection with any hantavirus can produce hantavirus disease in people. Hantaviruses in the Americas are known as 'New World' hantaviruses and may cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Other hantaviruses, known as 'Old World' hantaviruses, are found mostly in Europe and Asia and may cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).”

Hantavirus is not as lethal as the COVID-19, but folks infected could show similar signs and symptoms as that of COVID-19. CDC says that human to the human transmission may be extremely rare because the virus is spread by rodents through their saliva, urine, feces, and when an infected rat or rodent bites a person. People can get the virus if they breathe in infected air or the droppings and excretions of infected rodents.

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