Disease RKI head on hantavirus: no danger or pandemic risk
Despite the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, the head of the Robert Koch Institute sees no danger to the population. The virus can make people very ill, said Lars Schaade on ZDF's "heute journal".
10.05.2026, 23:45
SDA
"But the good news is that this is not a virus that spreads. And in this respect, I think I can say that I don't actually see any danger to the population in Germany or any risk of a pandemic."
With regard to the comparison with the coronavirus, Schaade said: "This is a completely different virus and the danger is not comparable at all." We have known about the virus for a very long time and can therefore assess it very well. At the time, the coronavirus was a new virus with specific characteristics. "Here we have a virus that we have known about for 31 years."
Schaade spoke of several thousand cases since its discovery in 1995. "And we have always succeeded in bringing the outbreak situation under control," he added.
