A claim has circulated on social media that a “new virus” named hantavirus has emerged in China in March 2020. The posts were viewed hundreds of thousands of times as the world battled the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
"The posts caption states: “JUST WHEN CHINA & WHOLE WORLD IS TRYING TO GET CURED FROM CORONA VIRUS, HERE COMES ANOTHER VIRUS", “THERE IS A NEW VIRUS IN CHINA NAMED HANTA VIRUS WHICH IS CAUSED DUE TO RATS, “ONE DIED AND FEW TESTED POSITIVE”., COVID-19 was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan\xa0in December 2019. It\xa0has killed more than 36,000 people and infected almost 754,000 others worldwide, according to data provided by the World Health Organization (WHO)., Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, One case of hantavirus was reported in the province of Shandong here\xa0in a tweet by Chinese state media organisation Global Times on March 24, 2020., A similar claim that hantavirus is a "new virus"\xa0was shared by Australia-based Facebook users here and here. The claim was also included in\xa0videos\xa0on Twitter here, here, here and here,\xa0which were viewed thousands of times. A similar claim was\xa0also viewed hundreds of thousands of times in videos\xa0shared by Indian media WION here and ET Now here., The claim is false; scientists have said hantavirus is not new and\xa0was first detected during the Korean War in the 1950s., This 2010 study titled “A Global Perspective on Hantavirus Ecology, Epidemiology, and Disease” was published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews. It states: ”In the past century, two major outbreaks of disease led to the discovery of hantaviruses in the Old and New Worlds. The first outbreak occurred during the Korean War (1950 to 1953), wherein more than 3,000 United Nations troops fell ill with Korean hemorrhagic fever, which is commonly referred to as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).”, This video produced by the University of California, San Francisco, gives more details about hantavirus., , Hantavirus is almost exclusively transmitted\xa0from rodents to humans, rather than from person to person,\xa0according to the US-based\xa0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)., “Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is a severe, sometimes fatal, respiratory disease in humans caused by infection with hantaviruses. Anyone who comes into contact with rodents that carry hantaviruses is at risk of HPS. The hantaviruses that cause human illness in the United States cannot be transmitted from one person to another. In Chile and Argentina, rare cases of person-to-person transmission have occurred among close contacts of a person who was ill with a type of hantavirus called Andes virus,” the CDC says., There is currently no specific treatment, cure or vaccine for HPS\xa0or\xa0COVID-19., , COVID-19\xa0is a respiratory illness which passes from person to person. The mortality rate of for the disease is about\xa0one to two percent as of March 2020., For\xa0HPS, the mortality rate\xa0is 38 percent, according to the CDC., Symptoms for COVID-19 patients may take up to two weeks to develop, while\xa0those infected with hantavirus may be asymptomatic for up to eight weeks., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Myth circulates online that 'new' hantavirus disease has emerged in China | AFP Fact Check