New hantavirus infections aboard a cruise ship have pushed the rare disease back into global view, prompting Native America Calling to examine how Indigenous knowledge shaped today’s response.
About 1,000 U.S. cases have been reported in more than 30 years, and much of what is known about hantavirus traces back to the 1993 outbreak on the Navajo Nation.
The program focused on the illness’s history and current efforts to prevent further spread, with public health expert Dean Seneca among the guests.
The discussion casts the current outbreak response in a broader frame: Indigenous communities were central to building the foundation for understanding and managing hantavirus.
As hantavirus resurfaces at sea, is the Indigenous wisdom that first identified it being used to stop its spread?
How is a rare, human-transmissible hantavirus being contained on a cruise ship for the first time in history?
Amid a deadly cruise ship outbreak, could a new pill in early trials finally offer a cure for hantavirus?