The video, which has racked up more than 200,000 views, also shows Dharma describing hantavirus as “a global agenda” to sell vaccines — echoing language he used in an earlier political event<\/a> where he falsely suggested Covid-19 was a made-up pandemic.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post captured on June 3, 2026, with a red X mark added by AFP<\/p>\n Covid-era conspiracies resurged<\/a> on social media following the global scare sparked by a hantavirus outbreak<\/a> on the MV Hondius cruise ship from Argentina to Cape Verde (archived\u00a0here<\/a> and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a\u00a0total of 13 cases, including three deaths, have been reported<\/a> as of May 27 (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Eight infections were confirmed for Andes virus — the only strain<\/a> transmitted between humans through close and prolonged contact, and which is predominantly found in parts of South America (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n All known cases in the outbreak were people on board<\/a> the Dutch-flagged vessel, with the WHO saying the risk to the general population is “absolutely low<\/a>” (archived\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Similar claims that the supposed Hebrew origin of the name of the virus is evidence that the disease is fraudulent have spread in\u00a0Australia<\/a>, the Philippines<\/a> and the United States<\/a>, and in posts written in\u00a0English<\/a>, Japanese<\/a>\u00a0and Spanish<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Indonesia, the claims made by former politician Dharma were reshared on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n When contacted by AFP on June 4,\u00a0he shared a screenshot appearing to show a Google AI Overview that says in Indonesian: “In modern Hebrew language, ‘hanta’ means nonsense, lies, or fraud.”<\/p>\n AFP conducted multiple keyword searches<\/a> on Google, but none yielded similar results.<\/p>\n Name origin<\/p>\n Moreover, several experts said “hanta” is not a Hebrew word, contrary to claims online.<\/p>\n Yaron Peleg, a professor on Modern Hebrew Studies<\/a> at the University of Cambridge, told AFP in a June 2 email the word does not exist in the language (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Sapri Sale<\/a>, founder of the\u00a0Jakarta Hebrew Learning Center<\/a>, said on May 29 the closest word in Hebrew that sounds similar to “hanta” would be “khantah” — referring to the fruit ripening process (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n An AFP journalist whose native language is Hebrew noted the words for “nonsense” are “shtuyot”, “qishqush” and the slang term “kharta” — which could sound close to “hanta” but is still not the same word.<\/p>\n Articles published in\u00a0academic<\/a> journals have consistently<\/a> stated\u00a0hantavirus was named after the Hantan River in South Korea, where the first known outbreak was recorded (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n More than 3,000 troops fell seriously ill after becoming infected during the 1950-1953 Korean War.<\/p>\n Public health concern<\/p>\n Although “relatively uncommon”, some hantavirus cases are associated with a\u00a0high fatality rate<\/a>, making the disease “a major public health concern”, according to the WHO (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Hantaviruses are generally known to cause two distinct illnesses.<\/p>\n “In the Americas, infection has been known to lead to hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), a rapidly progressive condition affecting the lungs and heart,” the WHO said.<\/p>\n “In Europe and Asia hantaviruses have been known to cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), which primarily affects the kidneys and blood vessels.”<\/p>\n Transmission of hantaviruses to humans generally occurs from contact with contaminated urine, droppings or saliva of infected wild rodents, such as mice or rats.<\/p>\n There are currently no approved vaccines for global use or specific treatments for the infection —\u00a0meaning treatment consists solely of attempting to relieve the symptoms.<\/p>\n The WHO estimates that from 10,000 to over 100,000 cases occur each year.<\/p>\n In Indonesia, the health ministry said there were 256 suspected<\/a> hantavirus cases in several provinces from 2024 to 2026,\u00a0with 23 cases of HFRS confirmed\u00a0(archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Local media Kompas reported<\/a> three deaths from HFRS were logged for the same period (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n More of our reporting on hantavirus misinformation can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"<span>Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4bc194a44a2b3bb61675c416e5f07313.jpeg\"\/)
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