There's very little risk of catching hantavirus on a flight

• The risk of contracting hantavirus on an airplane is extremely low, according to medical experts.
• Only one strain of hantavirus, the Andes virus, is associated with person-to-person transmission, and it is not endemic to America.
• Travelers can reduce the already small risk by practicing good hand hygiene and wearing an N95 mask.

Airline passengers are at very low risk of contracting hantavirus while they fly, experts say.

Amid the current cruise ship outbreak, many travelers are wondering how their own plans may be affected. The good news for flyers is there's virtually no risk of catching the virus during a plane trip, but for those who are still concerned, some basic precautions can reduce that small risk even more.

"People are thought to not be infectious until they start to not feel well. It is possible that someone who’s not feeling well but doesn’t look really sick could get on an airplane, however, there are a number of strains of hantavirus. Only one is associated with person-to-person transmission," Nicole Iovine, the chief hospital epidemiologist at University of Florida Health in Gainesville, Florida, told USA TODAY.

Iovine said that the outbreak on the cruise ship is the Andes virus strain – the strain that can be transmitted person-to-person – but that it's very rare and not endemic in the United States. Most hantavirus strains, including those that are already present in America, are transmitted through contact with droppings, urine or saliva of infected rodents.

"It’s a very rare infection to get in the first place and for them to be on a plane and then to be infectious, it’s extremely unlikely,” Iovine said.

Can you catch hantavirus on a plane?

There's very little risk.

"It’s a rare disease and it would be a very rare event," Iovine explained.

Robert Cross, an associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch's department of microbiology and immunology, said there's virtually no risk of transmission on airplanes within the United States, but travelers heading to certain parts of South America where the Andes virus strain is endemic are at slightly more risk. But, he added, it's still a rare disease.

“When you’re talking about air travelers, if they’re going to be traveling to areas where these viruses are endemic they need to be aware of them," Cross said.

Airplanes also use sophisticated air filtration systems to minimize the general risk of disease spread onboard.

What hantavirus precautions should flyers take?

“If you’re in an area where it’s known that there’s going to be some type of hantavirus activity, you want to have good hand hygiene," Cross said.

Many of the precautions are similar to those that became familiar at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"One would be to wear an N95 mask so that the air they breathe would not contain any of the viral particles that may be suspended in the air, and the second is to practice excellent hand hygiene, and that could be washing hands or using alcohol hand sanitizer," Iovine said.

Cross added that travelers should consider keeping the air vents open near their seat to help with circulation to keep disease particles away, and said it's worth trying to move if seated near a passenger who seems to be ill.

Both doctors emphasized, however, that the risk of transmission on planes, especially in the United States, is extremely low.

“I would counsel people to keep this in context in the sense that they are far, far, far more likely to contract the common cold or, during flu season, the flu, or other routine respiratory viruses while traveling on a plane rather than hantavirus.” Iovine said.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York, and you can reach him at [email protected].