Q&A: What Pharmacists Should Know About the Hantavirus Outbreak

With reports spilling out regarding a hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius, both pharmacists and their patients are scrambling to get an authoritative understanding as to what this virus entails and how it will transpire over the next few months.

“For right now, most of us don’t need to worry too much about this outbreak,” Nathan Ott, PharmD, pharmacy manager at Food City, told Drug Topics®. “The confinement of the cruise ship likely intensified disease transmission but also helped to concentrate the pandemic response. The chances are good that this will be nipped in the bud, especially with the intense worldwide focus on the response.”

However, with an alarming mortality rate and multiple reported deaths already, concerns are well-warranted—despite a swift and measured response from health officials in several locales.

Ott joined Drug Topics for an exclusive interview on his perspectives regarding the outbreak, exploring some of the most important facets of the virus, what things to read into regarding media reports, and just how primed pharmacists are to address the hantavirus should the issue exacerbate any further.

READ MORE: Cruise Ship Denied Docking Due to Deadly Hantavirus Outbreak

Drug Topics: What exactly is hantavirus and how does it spread to people?

Nathan Ott: Hantavirus is a viral infection that originated in the 4 corners region of the southwestern US in 1993. Infections in humans are rare, typically only occurring after inhalation of infected rodent droppings. Thanks to cultural norms in the US that see rodents and their droppings as detestable, contact between species is limited in most places. As a result, less than 1000 human cases have been confirmed in [hantavirus’] 30-year history.

The strain identified on the cruise ship, the Andes strain, has been previously able to jump from human to human, but it required fairly close personal contact to spread. As of now, there are no documented cases of asymptomatic patients spreading the infection. Since the disease has been so uncommon, we really don’t have enough data to know if asymptomatic spread is possible or not, but the virus appears to be far less contagious than influenza and COVID.

Drug Topics: How do symptoms typically present and what’s the timeline?

Nathan Ott: Two traits of hantavirus infection cause great concern when looking through a pandemic lense: incubation period and mortality rate. The incubation period range of 1-to-8 weeks means symptoms may not present until long after exposure. This makes monitoring and quarantine very difficult at scale.

The 38% mortality rate of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) could be truly horrific at scale and seems to be what is fueling the hype about this outbreak. We really lucked out that the initial patients were stuck on a cruise ship, making tracing, quarantine, and monitoring much easier.

Drug Topics: As a pharmacist, what are the most critical things you need to know about this hantavirus outbreak right now?

Nathan Ott: For right now, most of us don’t need to worry too much about this outbreak. The confinement of the cruise ship likely intensified disease transmission but also helped to concentrate the pandemic response. The chances are good that this will be nipped in the bud, especially with the intense worldwide focus on the response.

Drug Topics: What about the hantavirus do pharmacists understand that the general public may not?

Nathan Ott: While there may not be current vaccines or treatments for hantavirus, the technology advancements we achieved through the COVID pandemic may help speed the development of future vaccines. Multiple companies have gotten very good at mapping new mutations of viruses and cranking out new vaccines in a matter of months. Pharmacists have also mastered patient education and vaccine distribution and administration, so we are ready to plug into the pandemic response again if needed.

Drug Topics: How would you compare this outbreak with other disease outbreaks of a similar stature?

Nathan Ott: The transmission difficulty and high mortality rate of this disease reminds me of the West African Ebola outbreak from 2013-2016. While Ebola is horrifying, it has luckily never become an airborne virus, so the spread was slow. We learned there that quarantine and education can successfully contain an outbreak under the right circumstances.

This feels similar. A highly contagious hantavirus could be devastating, so the media hype is intense. Luckily, all available evidence shows that this is not nearly as contagious as COVID-19. Recent reports seem to indicate containment has likely already been achieved.

READ MORE: Infectious Disease Resource Center

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