The truth isn’t out there but at the Rafael Rangel National Hygiene Institute (INH)

Earlier this week, Venezuela’s Ministry of Health announced the deaths of three people in a small town in eastern Venezuela from hantavirus infection. The news quickly spread across social media and reached international headlines, partly because many associated it with the recent outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship sailing in the South Atlantic, where eleven passengers were infected and three died last May.

The two events, however, are unrelated.

Hantaviruses are a diverse family of viruses that naturally infect a wide variety of rodents and only occasionally spill over into humans. Infection usually occurs after exposure to contaminated rodent urine or feces, most commonly through inhaling virus-containing particles suspended in dust. Less frequently, transmission can occur through contaminated food, or through contact with blood, saliva, or bites from infected animals.

Human-to-human transmission has been documented only for the Andes virus, which circulates in southern Chile and Argentina and was responsible for the outbreak aboard the Hondius. Although Venezuelan authorities have not yet identified the virus responsible for the recent deaths, there is no reason to believe it is the Andes virus, which has never been detected in the country.

Instead, Venezuela is home to at least two native hantaviruses: Caño Delgadito and Maporal, named after the locations in Portuguesa and Barinas states where they were first identified. Unlike the Andes virus, neither has been shown to spread from person to person. As a result, the likelihood of community transmission or a nationwide outbreak is extremely low.

Because the rodents that carry these viruses are most common in rural environments, infections primarily affect agricultural workers and people who are regularly exposed to contaminated soil, grain storage facilities, or forestgoers.

Although this may be the first time many Venezuelans hear about hantavirus in the country, the disease is not new. Sporadic outbreaks have been reported since the first confirmed human case was identified in 1993. Besides the current cluster in Boca del Pao, Anzoátegui state, cases were last reported in Delta Amacuro in 2024 and in Portuguesa last year.

Detailed epidemiological information about these outbreaks has remained scarce, reflecting the longstanding lack of transparency surrounding official public health data in Venezuela.

Similarly, little is known about the three recent deaths in Anzoátegui beyond the fact that all three victims belonged to the same family.

Despite its apparent rarity, hantavirus infection in Venezuela is probably more common than reported. The rodent species that carry these viruses are widely distributed across Portuguesa, Barinas, Guárico, Cojedes, Anzoátegui, Delta Amacuro, and Bolívar states. Moreover, a 2013 serological study detected antibodies against hantaviruses in nearly 2% of more than 1,300 blood samples collected throughout the country.

These findings suggest that human exposure to hantaviruses is geographically widespread, even if infection and severe disease remain uncommon.

One reason the disease receives relatively little attention is that it can easily be mistaken for other febrile illnesses common in Venezuela, particularly dengue. Diagnosing hantavirus infection requires a high degree of clinical suspicion together with specialized laboratory testing, which is only available at the Rafael Rangel National Hygiene Institute (INH) and the Centre for Research on Hemorrhagic Viral Infections and Transmissible Diseases (CIVIHET) in Guanare, Portuguesa.

The Ministry of Health has also dismissed the possibility that the deaths in Anzoátegui are related to those of four healthcare workers in Barinas over the past seven months, all of whom reportedly developed similar symptoms, with two dying between July 11 and 15.

The cause of those deaths has not been publicly disclosed. Several infectious diseases endemic to the Venezuelan Llanos, including Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever, caused by the Guanarito virus, as well as dengue and yellow fever, can present with similar clinical features. Until additional information becomes available, however, any connection between these cases and those in Anzoátegui remains speculative.

For now, there is no evidence to suggest that Venezuela faces a large-scale hantavirus outbreak. Nevertheless, the recent deaths should prompt health authorities to strengthen epidemiological surveillance in affected states and communicate openly about the nature of the cases, the investigations underway, and the measures being taken to contain them.

More broadly, the outbreak should serve as an opportunity to restore the regular publication of official epidemiological bulletins, which have been largely absent from Venezuela for nearly a decade. Transparent public health information does not merely reassure the public; it is one of the most effective tools available for responding to emerging infectious diseases.