Hanta Virus is endemic to the American Southwest. I have a hard time believing such a rare and regionally specific virus somehow managed to make it onto a cruise ship without some other 3rd party group involved (read: released a virus on a ship).
You have to deliberately touch rat droppings and not clean up to get this already rare disease.
That is correct. Most, if not all cases involving Hanta virus are from individuals exposed to it in small corners, or dealing with wildlife/rodents. It's not something that spreads like the common cold or flu nor experienced in typical, modern society.
I don't know how Hanta Virus specifically spreads, but a cruise ship is practically a petri dish left to its own devices. Ships have so many nooks and crannies that it's almost impossible not to have vermin, cruises all cut as many corners as they possibly can, and you're all being repeatedly exposed to the same potential illness for days - whether through bad ventilation, bad water, or a cook that doesn't wash his hands. If anywhere was going to naturally spread an otherwise difficult-to-catch disease, a cruise ship would be the top of my list.
They're also supposed to extremely safe during a fire but that's only been true in practice for maybe a decade. I doubt ships are hosting many long-lived colonies, but they have plenty of opportunities to get on-board and slip away, and it only takes a few mistakes to end up with droppings or corpses somewhere. I would not be surprised if this led to a "shocking revelation" that sanitation protocols weren't actually being followed and there were a bunch of non-specific systemic issues in enacting them that implicate nobody.
Hanta Virus is endemic to the American Southwest. I have a hard time believing such a rare and regionally specific virus somehow managed to make it onto a cruise ship without some other 3rd party group involved (read: released a virus on a ship).
That is correct. Most, if not all cases involving Hanta virus are from individuals exposed to it in small corners, or dealing with wildlife/rodents. It's not something that spreads like the common cold or flu nor experienced in typical, modern society.
I don't know how Hanta Virus specifically spreads, but a cruise ship is practically a petri dish left to its own devices. Ships have so many nooks and crannies that it's almost impossible not to have vermin, cruises all cut as many corners as they possibly can, and you're all being repeatedly exposed to the same potential illness for days - whether through bad ventilation, bad water, or a cook that doesn't wash his hands. If anywhere was going to naturally spread an otherwise difficult-to-catch disease, a cruise ship would be the top of my list.
I heard modern cruise ships are normally rat-mouse free.
Steel everywhere makes it difficult for rats. Unlike old wooden ships
They're also supposed to extremely safe during a fire but that's only been true in practice for maybe a decade. I doubt ships are hosting many long-lived colonies, but they have plenty of opportunities to get on-board and slip away, and it only takes a few mistakes to end up with droppings or corpses somewhere. I would not be surprised if this led to a "shocking revelation" that sanitation protocols weren't actually being followed and there were a bunch of non-specific systemic issues in enacting them that implicate nobody.