Chinese Man Tests Positive For Hantavirus From Rats After Dying On Bus Full of Passengers

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Mar. 24, 2020

The Year of the Rat is upon us.

"A person from Yunnan Province died while on his way back to Shandong Province for work on a chartered bus on Monday," Chinese state media outlet Global Times reported Monday on Twitter. "He was tested positive for #hantavirus. Other 32 people on bus were tested."

A person from Yunnan Province died while on his way back to Shandong Province for work on a chartered bus on Monday. He was tested positive for #hantavirus. Other 32 people on bus were tested. pic.twitter.com/SXzBpWmHvW
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 24, 2020

This video (update: now deleted) was the top response:

From the New York Post:

A passenger who died on a bus in China has tested positive for a completely different virus than COVID-19 — one more fatal that often produces very similar symptoms, according to state-run media.

The #Hantavirus first emerged in 1950s in the American-Korean war in Korea (Hantan river). It spreads from rat/mice if humans injest their body fluids. Human-human transmission is rare. There were even vaccines developed for it. Please do not panic, unless you plan to eat rats.
— Dr Sumaiya Shaikh (@Neurophysik) March 24, 2020

[...] "The #Hantavirus first emerged in 1950s in the American-Korean war in Korea (Hantan river). It spreads from rat/mice if humans ingest their body fluids. Human-human transmission is rare," Swedish scientist Dr. Sumaiya Shaikh tweeted.

"Please do not panic, unless you plan to eat rats," she stressed.

USA Today rushed an article out to assure the public they have nothing to worry about:

Their advice worked out so well with the coronavirus.

As the WHO chief said earlier this month, we really should be worried about "stigma"!

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