Symptoms, transmission, incubation: what do we really know about hantavirus?

Onset of symptoms, mode of transmission, incubation period… Sometimes contradictory information circulates about hantavirus. This virus, whose strain Andes has caused the death of several cruise ship passengers on the MV Hondus, was first identified during the Korean War (1950-1953), when thousands of UN soldiers developed a mysterious hemorrhagic fever with kidney involvement.

Today, dozens of strains have been isolated by researchers, each with different incubation periods, levels of severity, and modes of transmission. But even regarding the strain Andes, Closely monitored since the start of the epidemic, the risk of spread remains difficult to assess. Science and Future takes stock of the current state of knowledge on this virus with Professor Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist, specializing in public health and Director of the Institute of Global Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva.