Hantavirus travellers return: What GPs should know

As hantavirus continues to make global headlines, an RACGP expert is urging GPs not to panic.
 
While many GPs are facing questions from concerned patients, RACGP Specific Interests Public Health Chair Dr Peter Markey said that at this stage, ‘there’s not likely to be any hantavirus cases in Australia’.
 
Six passengers from the MV Hondius, a cruise ship linked to a hantavirus cluster, were repatriated to Australia on Friday – all were symptom-free and testing negative when they boarded the aircraft.
 
‘There’s no hantavirus at the moment, and these people are going straight into quarantine,’ Dr Markey told newsGP.
 
‘You can’t exclude everything so I wouldn’t say zero risk, but there’s not likely to be cases in Australia.
 
‘These people who are coming in don’t have hantavirus, they are just quarantining them, and our quarantine facilities are pretty tight, we know from COVID.’
 
The Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has advised that testing for hantavirus is not required for people who are asymptomatic, and there is no evidence of transmission from asymptomatic people.
 
While there is currently no evidence of an increased risk of hantavirus associated with travel, Dr Markey recommends GPs continue to take a usual thorough history in returned travellers with a febrile illness.
 
On Thursday, Federal Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler confirmed there is a PCR test for hantavirus and all six returning passengers will be subject to testing when they arrive in Australia and will be in full PPE during the duration of the flight.
 
On arrival in Australia, the passengers will then be transferred to a quarantine facility outside of Perth, and be managed as per public health advice.
 
Minister Butler also assured that the situation will be monitored ‘very closely’ and that the World Health Organization (WHO) is ‘providing very regular advice to agencies like our CDC’.
 
‘Australians can have very high confidence that we are doing everything to ensure that this repatriation of those six passengers is undertaken completely safely,’ he said.
 
‘I repeat that this is one of the strongest quarantine arrangements in response to this hantavirus outbreak you will find anywhere in the world.’
 
The recent focus on hantavirus follows a notification to the WHO on 2 May of severe respiratory cases aboard the impacted cruise ship.
 
However, hantavirus is not a new phenomenon, with the first case detected in 1993.
 
Like many other viral illnesses, symptoms of hantavirus can include fatigue, fever, muscle aches, cough and shortness of breath. It has an incubation period of up to 42 days.
 
While hantavirus infection is serious, human infection is rare and typically occurs through breathing in air particles contaminated by the faeces or urine of infected rodents. Human to human transmission is rare.
 
As of 14 May, a total of 11 cases, including three deaths, have been reported.
 
The WHO has assessed the global risk as low, and is managing an internationally coordinated response, including isolation and management of cases, contacting tracing and infection prevention and control measures.
 
Hantavirus can present with similar symptoms to other common viral illnesses, but there are currently no reports of hantavirus infection in humans in Australia
 
Going into the winter period, Dr Markey’s advice to GPs is to continue assessing those with respiratory illnesses in the same way and referring those with severe symptoms to hospital, if required.
 
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COVID-19 hantavirus infection respiratory illness