After coronavirus its hantavirus which led to the death of a man in China

March 24: Reports of a person in China dying due to a virus called hantavirus have spread panic at a time when the world is battling the pandemic of novel coronavirus, which began in China. A man from Yunnan province died after he was tested positive for hantavirus. However, it turns out, hantavirus is not a new virus and has been infecting humans for decades.

But what exactly is the hantavirus and how does it spread? The virus was named as Hantaan virus, after the name of the river Hantan. People get HPS when they breath in hantaviruses. This can happen when rodent urine and droppings that contain a hantavirus are stirred up into the air. People can also become infected when they touch mouse or rat urine, droppings, or nesting materials that contain the virus and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth. They can also get HPS from a mouse or rat bite.

Hantavirus which caused death of a Chinese man spreads through rodents (a rodent is a gnawing mammal of an order that includes rats, mice, squirrels, hamsters, porcupines, and their relatives, distinguished by strong constantly growing incisors and no canine teeth. They constitute the largest order of mammals.) and has symptoms including fever. Any man, woman, or child who is around mice or rats that carry harmful hantaviruses can get hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

If people get HPS, they will feel sick one to five weeks after they were around mice or rats that carried a hantavirus. At first people with HPS will have Fever, Severe muscle aches, Fatigue. After a few days they will have a hard time breathing. Sometimes people will have headaches, dizziness, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain. Usually, people do not have a runny nose, sore throat, or a rash.

However, we should not panic. While the timing and the circumstances of the death (due to the coronavirus pandemic) is not the best, it is important to not give in to alarmist reports, and refrain yourself from panicking. While it is true that the hantavirus has proved to have led to deaths, it has over time been certified to be non-contagious. As a result, the solitary death should not make you spread the word of a potential pandemic in the making.