A Bulgarian epidemiologist has said there is no reason for concern about hantavirus in the country, stressing that the situation remains limited to a very narrow circle of people linked to a cruise ship outbreak and their close contacts.
Speaking to the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Dr. Petar Markov, an epidemiologist and lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, explained that hantavirus is highly pathogenic, in some cases even more so than the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he emphasized that severity is not the main factor in determining pandemic risk. “The head of the WHO said three things at today’s conference together with the Spanish Prime Minister,” he noted, adding that the key issue is transmissibility rather than lethality.
According to him, the risk of wider spread in Bulgaria is extremely low. He said any future cases are expected mainly among people who were on the affected ship or those in direct contact with them, such as family members. “At this stage, I would not say that there is any significant risk to people in Bulgaria. We expect that there will eventually be new cases from people who were on the ship or very close contacts of them… At this stage, from the available information, I would not worry,” he told the Horizont program, adding that more cases may appear due to the virus’s long incubation period rather than ongoing transmission.
