DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — More than a dozen people remain under observation for symptoms of hantavirus at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha. But local health and pest control specialists say Iowans should not be worried about it spreading, KCCI reports.
Dr. Aneesa Afroze is an infectious disease specialist at MercyOne Medical Center and the center’s director of infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship. She says that hantavirus infections in humans are rare and are not spread easily from person to person.
“It also is not spread like your COVID or influenza just by passing by or coughing on each other. This is spread by very close contact for a prolonged period of time,” Afroze said. “Most of the time, people get it when they get exposed to infected rodents.”…