Commenting on several news reports in recent days regarding a case in Arad County, in western Romania, he said on Facebook that there are no known infected Hungarians, nor is there any known Hungarian who may have come into contact with people affected by the epidemic, "so there is no immediate domestic epidemiological threat."

He said that most hantaviruses do not spread from person to person. Infection usually occurs through inhalation of dust contaminated with the urine, feces, or saliva of infected rodents, he said.
 

"There is currently no cause for panic in Hungary," he said, adding that hantavirus infections are rare in Hungary: between 2015 and 2024, 2 to 16 cases were recorded annually.
 

Hantaviruses found in Hungary typically cause milder or moderate kidney-related illnesses, Hegedus said.

The Andes type of the hantavirus, which is capable of spreading from person to person, typically spreads only through close contact, representing fundamentally different epidemiological dynamics compared to Covid-19, he said.

"Based on current scientific knowledge, it is extremely unlikely that this will lead to another pandemic or 'Covid 2.0'," Hegedus said.

He added that currently, there is no widely used, internationally accepted vaccine against the hantavirus, but there is no epidemiological situation that would justify a mass vaccination program, and widespread community transmission is not expected.

Photo: Pixabay.com

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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