Bill Gates-backed vaccine group warned hantavirus ‘may very well be next pandemic’ | News World

A health organisation linked to Bill Gates’ foundation warned years ago concerning the growing danger posed by hantaviruses.

Five cases linked to the MV Hondius ship have been confirmed because the rat-borne hantavirus, which the Dutch couple killed on the cruise is believed to have picked up from a landfill site in Argentina during a bird watching trip.  

With health officials from all over the world tracing contacts of people that disembarked the cruise earlier, the number is feared to rise as the incubation time for the deadly illness may very well be as much as eight weeks.  

Follow the newest updates concerning the hantavirus outbreak here 

In May 2021, when everyone was still raw from the coronavirus pandemic, a global health body called Gavi talked concerning the potential of hantavirus to grow to be a pandemic.

In an article posted on its VaccineWork platform, its experts asked whether some person-to-person transmissions warranted fear for his or her pandemic potential.

Gavi the vaccine alliance has received billions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to assist research and develop immunisations.  

While it said that the pandemic threat level of hantavirus was deemed ‘low,’ hantaviruses generally were becoming ‘an increasing concern.’  

Gavi said the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) has develop into endemic across the North and South Americas, and a sort referred to as Andes virus was ‘particular concern in Chile and Argentina.’

It said the mix of the long incubation period and the emergence of latest species of the disease ‘mean that hantaviruses have gotten an increasing concern.’

What’s hantavirus?

Hantaviruses are a family of rodent-borne viruses, with each strain tied to a selected host species.

It’s spread when people come into contact with infected droppings, saliva, urine or nesting materials, but is extremely rare, and barely passed from individual to individual.

If caught, hantavirus can result in two predominant illnesses, one in all which affects the lungs (Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome or HPS) and the opposite which affects the kidneys (Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or HFRS).

The incubation period for this illness is mostly two to 4 weeks, in keeping with the federal government, but can range from as little as two days to so long as eight weeks.

What are the symptoms?

Early symptoms of hantavirus are much like the flu, and include headaches, dizziness, chills in addition to abdominal problems like diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea.

If it progresses into Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, patients can experience headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

For those who develop Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, initial symptoms will include intense headaches, back and abdominal pain, fever or chills, nausea, and blurred vision.

If the disease progresses, later symptoms include low blood pressure, acute shock (lack of blood flow), internal bleeding, and acute kidney failure, in keeping with the CDC.

Hantavirus could be fatal, so it’s essential to regulate symptoms when you imagine you’ve been exposed. There may be currently no cure for the disease.

‘Similarly, epidemics of person-to-person transmission of the Andes virus in Argentina and Chile indicate it could actually evolve to sustain human-to-human transmission,’ the piece said.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and experts have insisted that the hantavirus outbreak isn’t just like the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Maria Van Kerkhove from the WHO said: ‘This isn’t SARS-CoV two, this isn’t the beginning of a Covid pandemic – that is an outbreak that we see on a ship, there may be a confined area.’  

Pharmacist Thorrun Govind told Metro that it’s ‘very rare’ for hantavirus to spread from individual to individual, adding that that is ‘not like Covid or flu.’

All eyes are following the movements of MV Hondius Antarctic cruise after cases of hantavirus broke out, resulting in deaths of three people and a scramble to evacuate other cases from the doomed ship because it sails towards the Canary Islands.

Nevertheless, protesters in Tenerife are up in arms about the potential of MV Hondius docking on the island.

Crowds with banners reading ‘we should not second-class’ demonstrated against the ship’s planned arrival on the Tenerife port.

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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