ALBANY, NY \u2013 Concerns surrounding the Hantavirus have prompted questions about whether the virus could pose a threat in New York following reports tied to passengers aboard a cruise ship.<\/p>\n
Dr. James McDonald, commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, said New Yorkers currently face no immediate risk from the virus and emphasized that Hantavirus spreads very differently from illnesses such as COVID-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what\u2019s important to note, though, is that it\u2019s not spread easily from one person to the other,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cYou don\u2019t just walk by the person. It\u2019s prolonged, close personal contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald explained that documented person-to-person transmission cases have generally involved people living closely together for extended periods of time, such as married couples.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe virus isn\u2019t traditionally spread through the air or droplets like COVID was at all,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really spread by body fluids and through close personal contact for a prolonged period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hantavirus is a rare but potentially serious disease that has raised concerns after reports claimed roughly 40% of infected people die from it. Despite those concerns, McDonald said there is currently no threat to residents in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people need to know is that there is no risk to New Yorkers right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McDonald also pointed to lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying public health officials remain prepared to respond if necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep in mind that lessons we learned during the pandemic were core public health practices,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cWhat\u2019s an exposure? What is contact tracing? How do you monitor the patient for symptoms? These are all core public health skills that still apply here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also urged people to be cautious about misinformation circulating online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s another thing we should learn from the pandemic,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cWhere you get your information from really matters. There\u2019s too much stuff going on in social media right now that\u2019s weird, even by today\u2019s standards on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to officials, 17 Americans were aboard the cruise ship connected to the concerns. About half have since returned to the United States and are quarantining in five different states. Officials said none of those individuals are in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, NY \u2013 Concerns surrounding the Hantavirus have prompted questions about whether the virus could pose a threat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-228084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}