Hantavirus blamed on — global warming! ‘Climate change is contributing to the conditions driving a rodent boom – ‘Wet Weather in Argentina Helped Fuel the Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak’
By Admin
May 23, 2026
9:59 am
https://www.wired.com/story/climate-change-next-hantavirus-outbreak/By MARÍA DE LOS ÁNGELES ORFILA
Excerpt:
The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has created a global public health crisis. But the driver of it is a rodent that weighs about an ounce, and climate shifts this year that have helped increase the odds of transmission.
Across the Southern Cone, researchers have long associated wetter years with explosive rodent population booms—known locally as ratadas—that can amplify hantavirus transmission. This year’s boom reflects a broader pattern of disease outbreaks shaped by climate change, environmental disruption, and a hyperconnected world.
“These are emerging diseases because the distribution of both the reservoirs and the viruses is expanding,” says Karina Hodara, a researcher at the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires who studies hantavirus ecology. “Humans travel across continents in a matter of hours.”
https://www.climatedepot.com/2026/05/23/climate-change-is-contributing-to-the-conditions-driving-a-rodent-boom-wet-weather-in-argentina-helped-fuel-the-cruise-ship-hantavirus-outbreak/
