A deadly hantavirus on a cruise ship off the coast of Africa is now raising questions around the world — and now, the first U.S. case of the Andes strain of hantavirus has been confirmed. To help make sense of what we know — and what we don’t — Mosheh speaks with Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and author of the Inside Medicine Substack.
They discuss how concerned Americans should actually be, how this is different from COVID, and what health officials are watching as passengers from the outbreak-linked cruise ship return home across multiple countries. Dr. Faust explains what makes the Andes strain unique, how it spreads, and why experts say the virus’s “slow biology” may actually be reassuring.
The conversation also covers the confirmed U.S. case, symptomatic passengers under monitoring, lessons from a deadly 2018 Andes strain outbreak in Argentina, public trust in health authorities after the pandemic, and whether there’s any evidence the virus has become more transmissible.
Plus: why hantavirus remains rare despite rats being common in major cities — and what would have to happen for this outbreak to become something far more serious.
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Mosheh Oinounou (⁠⁠⁠⁠@mosheh⁠⁠⁠⁠) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022.