Arizona Photojournalist Recalls Hantavirus Ordeal Amid Cruise Ship Outbreak

Arizona photojournalist Gilbert Zermeño, who contracted hantavirus 24 years ago after losing both his mother and sister to the illness, said news of the recent outbreak has been hard to process.

"I imagine I got the same feeling that every person who's ever contracted hantavirus and still deals with the effects afterwards of it," Zermeño told CBS News' "The Daily Report." "It takes you back, and it's no less painful now than it was back then. It's hard. I'm not going to lie."

In 2002, Zermeño learned he had contracted hantavirus after cleaning the family house in Texas following the deaths of his mother and sister. He had been exposed to rodent droppings, became infected and spent several days in a Phoenix hospital.

Health officials around the world are monitoring a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to a Dutch-flagged cruise ship. The outbreak has caused nine confirmed or suspected cases, including three deaths.

Zermeño believes online misinformation about the illness has panicked some of the public because of the word "virus."

"But I'm here to just tell people, look, you need to do some research on this because it's not as scary as COVID-19 was," Zermeño said.

Ann Lindstrand, a World Health Organization representative in Cape Verde, told CBS News on Tuesday that there was no risk of a pandemic-level threat. She cited the low likelihood of human-to-human transmission.

In a statement Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said hantavirus "is not spread by people without symptoms, transmission requires close contact, and the risk to the American public is very low."

Zermeño said his mother and sister were initially misdiagnosed. Doctors first said the two died of sepsis, but later determined it was hantavirus. He said the rarity of the illness complicated his own diagnosis and treatment. Family members in the medical community helped him get a proper diagnosis.

"Listen to your medical professionals and have a plan in the event that you do feel that you were exposed to the hantavirus or to someone who had hantavirus," Zermeño said. "The likelihood of you catching it from a person-to-person is minuscule."