What to know about the hantavirus outbreak on transatlantic cruise

NPR's A Martinez speaks with Dr. Celine Gounder about the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean. A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: Public health authorities in South Africa said today they identified the strain of hantavirus in two people who were on the Dutch cruise ship where the infection killed three passengers. To get a better understanding of this virus, we called Dr. Celine Gounder. She's a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at New York University and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News. Doctor, briefly, what is hantavirus and what are its symptoms? CELINE GOUNDER: Sure. Hantavirus is a family of viruses that's carried by rodents. People usually get infected when they're breathing in dust contaminated with mouse or rat droppings, urine or saliva. And most infections occur when someone disturbs a rodent-contaminated space. So they might be cleaning out a shed, opening up a building that's been closed for a while, sweeping the basement. And the syndrome that this causes is hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. So it starts with a fever, headaches and muscle aches, but this can progress quite rapidly to severe breathing problems, heart failure and shock. Depending on the type of the virus, between 10% and 50% of people who develop that severe form can die. MARTÍNEZ: OK. …