Doctor Compares Hantavirus Cruise Outbreak to COVID, Sees No Risk of Pandemic

Rising hantavirus cases have Americans recalling the coronavirus pandemic, but experts say the rare virus will not spread like COVID-19.

The Andes virus strain, tied to an outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship where three people died, is the only known hantavirus capable of human-to-human transmission through prolonged close contact.

Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News Digital there is "no comparison" between hantavirus and coronavirus. "You could say the comparison ends at that they're both single-stranded RNA viruses," he said. "That's a comparison, but [hantavirus] has been unchanged basically for decades."

Coronavirus mutated and caused problems, but hantavirus has not, Siegel said. "We don't know why it started to mutate, but this one doesn't appear to have done that," he added. "And every day that goes by seems to show that theory is correct – the genetics of it is the same."

Both viruses come from animals, but COVID spreads through airborne respiratory droplets while hantavirus mainly spreads through secretions, dust or droppings. "It's not airborne ... in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air," Siegel said. "It's very difficult to transmit."

Coronavirus adapted to humans, but hantavirus has not except in rare human cases, the doctor noted. Hantavirus infections have occurred in the U.S. for decades but remain very rare.

Warming temperatures are driving rodents north toward Buenos Aires and changing spread patterns, Siegel said. The cruise ship outbreak occurred in close quarters conducive to transmission, but no second generation of cases has appeared.

A better comparison is bird flu, which mostly infects animals and occasionally humans despite billions of birds, Siegel said. Hantavirus would need major mutations for widespread human spread since it thrives in rodents. "If you get this virus, you're in trouble, but getting this virus is very difficult," he said.

Fears of another pandemic are misplaced. "Coronaviruses are airborne anyway. This is not. And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not," Siegel said. "I'm much more concerned about flu than this. Flu can mutate all the time, and it's already going human to human all over the place, and it’s airborne."

"Most infectious disease specialists are much more worried about flu than this, as deadly as this can be," he added. "We're talking apples and oranges, and any comparison you make after that provokes fear."