Netizens panicked after the news about a man from China’s Yunnan province who tested positive to ‘hantavirus’ broke.
The concerns come as countries grapple with containing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
COVID-19 was believed to be from Wuhan, China, the previous epicenter of the outbreak.
In a report on the Global Times, the man from Yunnan Province who was travelling to Shandong province tested positive for hantavirus, prompting authorities to test 32 others who road on the same bus.
The news has spread shockwaves among netizens with some people claiming that another ‘epidemic’ looms.
Hantavirus is transmitted from rodents to humans. The incident, however, is very rare to happen.
The first reported case was dated back during the Korean war.
The Centers for Disease Control or CDC says that hantavirus can be transferred through urine, feces, and saliva, and less frequently by a bite from an infected host.
There have been hundreds of cases of hantavirus in the United States. It has a mortality rate of 38%.
Symptoms may include fever, muscle aches, and pneumonia.
