Frequently asked questions
What hantavirus is, how this site curates outbreaks, and how to use the data.
What is hantavirus?
Hantavirus is a family of rodent-borne RNA viruses (family Hantaviridae). Some species cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) in the Americas; others cause Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) across Eurasia. People are infected primarily by inhaling aerosolised rodent urine, droppings, or saliva. Person-to-person transmission is documented only for Andes virus.
How accurate is the data on this map?
Every event cites primary sources (WHO, CDC, ECDC, PAHO, peer-reviewed literature, or major news). Numeric claims are verified against a verbatim source quote — the ingestion pipeline literally substring-checks that Claude's quoted sentence appears in the fetched article text. Where a number could not be verified from an open-access tier-1 source, we use zero rather than fabricate. Errors and omissions are still possible — submit corrections at /contribute.
Is this an official surveillance source?
No. hantavirusmap.io is an educational tracker, not an authoritative surveillance system. WHO, CDC, ECDC, PAHO, and your national health authority are the official sources. Always defer to them for real-time guidance.
How do you decide what to publish?
Sources are tiered. Tier 1 (WHO, CDC, ECDC, PAHO, national ministries) auto-publishes as "verified". Tier 2 (ProMED, CIDRAP, peer-reviewed literature) auto-publishes as "preliminary". Tier 3 (Reuters, AP, BBC) queues for human review. Tier 4 (local news, blogs, social media) is signal only and never auto-publishes. Source tier and Claude's extraction confidence together determine the gate.
Can I use this data?
Yes. The dataset is licensed CC-BY-4.0 — free to use, share, and build on for any purpose including commercial, as long as you credit hantavirusmap.io. Raw JSON is at /data/outbreaks.json, per-event Markdown shadows at /raw/, and an OpenAPI spec at /openapi.json. AI agents see /llms.txt.
How dangerous is hantavirus?
It depends on the strain. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS, the Americas) has a case-fatality ratio of roughly 30–40%, among the highest of any acute respiratory disease. Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS, Eurasia) varies from below 1% for Puumala virus in Finland to 10–15% for Hantaan virus in northeast Asia. Andes virus is the only strain with documented person-to-person transmission. There is no licensed antiviral; care is supportive.
How can I report a missing or incorrect outbreak?
Use the /contribute form for new events or corrections. Submissions are queued for human review and surface in the public moderation log. You can also open an issue or PR at the GitHub repository — both are checked daily.
Why does the timeline only go back to 1993?
Hantaviruses themselves are ancient — HFRS has been recognised in Eurasia since at least the Korean War — but the modern recognition era for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome begins with the 1993 Four Corners outbreak in the southwestern United States. Pre-1993 cases were generally retroactively reclassified or remain unidentified at the species level. We include older events when they have been firmly tied to a specific hantavirus species in the literature.
Who is behind this site?
Built and maintained by Atlas Development Global. The site is a public-good project with no advertising, no email capture, and no popups. Code is MIT-licensed and the data is CC-BY-4.0.