A suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean has all the hallmarks of a nightmare scenario: A handful of people have fallen gravely ill, three have died and nearly 150 people are stuck off the coast of Cape Verde while global health experts are scrambling to understand — and stop — the infections.
But while tragic, there’s no reason for panic. This likely isn’t the opening scene for a bigger, scarier movie.
That’s mainly because this type of virus isn’t known for easily spreading to and between humans. Still, infectious disease detectives need to quickly and carefully study what happened to rein in the situation and better understand how these deadly viruses function. They have a lot of work ahead of them.
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