As three British nationals are diagnosed with suspected Hantavirus following an outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, the Mirror takes a look at three people who narrowly survived the horror rodent disease, including the warning signs doctors missed.
Hantavirus Outbreak on MV Hondius
Health authorities are racing to address a serious Hantavirus outbreak which occurred aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, currently docked at the world's most remote island of Tristan da Cunha. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed eight cases, including three fatalities. A Dutch couple and a German national died after what should have been a once in a lifetime 46-day Antarctic expedition that has turned into a nightmare. Investigators believe the outbreak may be linked to a birdwatching tour at a landfill site in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, taken before the couple boarded.
As three British passengers have been diagnosed with suspected Hantavirus - two already medically evacuated - the wait for answers continues. While the WHO has advised that any risk to the general public remains low, this is a very serious disease, and one that those who've survived it will likely be unable to forget. Here, the Mirror takes a look at three cases where Hantavirus patients have survived by the skin of their teeth.
'Knife in back'
Former Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl told the Mirror about his terrifying Hantavirus ordeal, which occurred shortly after he led German side VfR Aalen to promotion back in 2012. While the 58-year-old Austrian initially dismissed his symptoms as exhaustion following a gruelling mountain bike ride, it soon became clear something was worryingly wrong.
Hasenhüttl told us: "I went to bed and that's when the pain in my head started. It felt like there was a needle in my head. Then I started to notice severe back pain. It felt like there was a knife in my back." Doctors later revealed that his liver and kidneys were expanding rapidly due to the virus, putting agonising pressure against his other organs.
Remembering those two excruciating weeks he spent in intensive care, worrying for his life and his career, Hasenhüttl recalled: "I was out for such a long time and didn't know when I would be back. My heartbeat would wake me up because of how intense it was, I would just feel this thud in my chest."
Thankfully, Hasenhüttl, who was then at the peak of his professional career, managed to pull through, but it was an extremely difficult time, with doctors warning the sports star that there was no immediate cure. He shared: "You have to wait until your body creates antibodies and then hope to survive. It was just a waiting game. I tried to push away from bad thoughts because I felt young, healthy and strong. I thought, 'Why should I die from a virus?'"
It was later determined that the Premier League manager had contracted the virus while sweeping up dust while sweeping his patio, which he then inhaled. He has now urged others to be careful when cleaning outdoor areas or old sheds, while warning that symptoms can take around two or three weeks to become apparent.
Haunting fear
Shaina Monteil was just five years old when, while playing outside with siblings one summer evening, she unknowingly breathed in dust contaminated by hantavirus. At first, her mother assumed she just had the flu, but the situation escalated quickly.
Shaina, now a 38-year-old schoolteacher, told the Mirror: "My mum took me to the doctors and was given antibiotics but I just got worse. I was throwing up a lot and it progressed to the point where I was so weak and unable to go to school. I remember having really bad headaches, my stomach was hurting a lot and I had a bad rash all over my body."
It was then that the haemorrhaging began. After being rushed to hospital, doctors noticed tiny blood spots (petechiae) under Shaina's skin, and initially misdiagnosed her with meningitis and then leukaemia. Shaina, from California, remembered: "I was put on a floor with children who weren't going to live. There were kids all around me who couldn't move. They thought I wasn't going to make it either. So many doctors were coming in and taking photos of me and collecting data, but no one knew what it was."
Fortunately, an observant young doctor who had recently attended a medical conference recognised the specific cluster of symptoms as hantavirus, and Shaina was able to get the life-saving treatment she so desperately needed. According to Shaina: "It was like a miracle. They managed to treat me, it was so painful and my body was swollen and sore to touch - but it managed to work."
Doctors were crying as I recovered. Everyone was in shock and telling my mum they didn't know how I was still alive. My parents also became very overprotective, my mum was constantly checking me."
Even all these decades after her recovery, Shaina remains haunted by the memories of her brush with death, and lives with a terrible fear of illness. She revealed: "Even after I got better I was always afraid of catching it again and developed a fear of dying. I was so scared I wasn't going to make it to turning 10. If I get a rash or just something weird on my skin I freak out because I think it just takes me back. Whenever someone around me is sick, I get nervous. In my brain I think they are going to die because I almost died. I just always think the worst now."
'Hysterical like a rabid bobcat'
One sunny spring morning in 2011, Debbie Zipperian was clearing away cat food dishes from an old chicken coop on her Montana ranch. It was a simple five minute chore, but still, enough time for her to contract hantavirus. Just one week later, Debbie began experiencing symptoms such as exhaustion, neck pain and back aches, which doctors initially put down to flu or pneumonia.
Three trips to the doctors later though, and Debbie was diagnosed with the dangerous virus. By this point Debbie was hallucinating and confused, and while her memories from this time aren't clear, her husband later told her how she'd been "hysterical like a rabid bobcat" and had to be strapped down by doctors.
Speaking with KPAX-TV in 2018, Debbie shared: "I flat-lined twice, and they couldn't get me ventilated because I was just too erratic and they couldn't get me sedated." Debbie, who woke up one week later, says she managed to stay strong throughout her frightening ordeal by thinking of her son, Wyatt, and how much he needed her.
Unfortunately, hantavirus took a serious toll on Debbie's health, leaving her with lasting spinal and neurological damage. She says she had to "learn everything all over again", including walking.
