Be aware of Hantavirus misleading post
Hantavirus Misleading Post – Be aware of this misleading post about the Hantavirus that was reportedly the cause of death of a Chinese man.
In a previous report, a China-based news entity Global Times confirmed that a man died due to Hantavirus while riding on a bus. Other passengers were tested and the results are yet to be announced.
Because of this, the online community got alarmed when this became a trending topic on social media. However, based on the article from Independent, a misleading post brought panic online amid the crisis that many parts of the world are experiencing right now due to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The article from Independent cited this message on WhatsApp which is tagged as “misleading”: “When the whole world is still suffering from Covid-19, here comes another virus… The ‘hanta virus’ has been detected in China, mainly caused by rodents. One already died and few tested positive.”
Based on the article, misleading posts that “new outbreak” similar to COVID-19 have been circulating not just on WhatsApp but also on other social media platforms. It appeared that these posts are trying to imply that the world should be warned that it could be in danger once again after the new coronavirus.
The article tagged the warnings as “overexaggerated” and it is “nowhere near as dangerous” as the COVID-19.
Based on the report from the New York Post, Hantavirus first emerged in the 1950s. A tweet from Dr. Sumaiya Shaikh stated: “The #Hantavirus first emerged in 1950s in the American-Korean war in Korea (Hantan river). It spreads from rat/mice if humans ingest their body fluids. Human-human transmission is rare. Please do not panic, unless you plan to eat rats.”
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