Overview

Hantavirus is a virus mainly linked to infected rodents.

• It can cause serious lung or kidney illness.
• Risk depends on the virus type and the region.
• Early symptoms can look like flu.

How It Spreads

• Breathing dust contaminated by rodent urine or droppings.
• Touching contaminated surfaces, then your eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Bites or direct contact can happen, but are less common.
• Most hantaviruses do not spread easily between people.

Who Is at Higher Risk?

• People living or working where rodents are present.
• Anyone cleaning attics, basements, sheds, cabins, or garages.
• Farm, forestry, warehouse, and pest control workers.
• Campers, hikers, and others spending time in rural areas.

How to Protect Yourself

• Seal holes and gaps where rodents can enter.
• Store food safely and keep waste sealed.
• Do not sweep dry droppings; wet and disinfect first.
• Use gloves and wash hands after cleanup.

Symptoms

• Fever, fatigue, muscle aches, headache.
• Nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, dizziness.
• Cough, chest tightness, or shortness of breath are urgent signs.
• Seek medical help quickly after possible rodent exposure.

When Symptoms Can Start

• Symptoms may appear days or weeks after exposure.
• Early illness can look like flu or another viral infection.
• Breathing problems or kidney-related signs need urgent care.

Possible Exposure

• Recent rodent contact at home, work, or while traveling.
• Cleaning basements, attics, garages, sheds, or cabins.
• Contact with droppings, urine, dust, or nesting material.

Markers and Signals

• A marker may reflect an alert, news report, or official update.
• Marker counts are signals, not guaranteed confirmed case totals.
• Use official public health sources for final guidance.

What “Risk” Means Here

The high, medium, and low labels are monitoring levels calculated from recent source signals, including the number of recent reports, whether official sources are present, and how current the activity appears.

• High risk means stronger monitoring priority, not a confirmed number of infected people.
• Reported cases and reported deaths are shown only when the system extracts those figures from source snapshots.
• If a country shows 0 cases or deaths, it may mean no extracted source total is available, not that official totals are zero.

Where the Data Comes From

The source panel lists the feeds currently loaded by the tracker. Current inputs include WHO Disease Outbreak News, Google News search/RSS results, and manual corrections or submissions. Other connectors such as CDC, ECDC, PAHO, GDELT, and ProMED may be present but disabled unless configured.

Open the source links beside each signal or country before treating a figure as official.