Gabriela Emanuel

Measles patients have overwhelmed the country's medical system.

Some patients are being treated on hospital floors.

Others are sharing beds.

Mohammad Kamal's two-year-old daughter has measles.

This outbreak is the result of an interim government in 2024 overhauling the country's vaccine program.

That caused vaccine shortages.

Now, a new government has launched a measles vaccination campaign, but experts say it may take a month or more to see the impact.

And they're especially worried because this week is a school holiday when many families travel and could spread the virus further.

Gabriela Emanuel, NPR News.

The biggest reason is hantavirus does not spread from one person to another that easily.

Now, people usually get it when they inhale virus particles from infected rodent feces, urine, or saliva.

But when it does spread from one person to the next, you need to be in quite close contact.

So think of a household or a nurse caring for a patient.

Although I should note from one well-documented outbreak in Argentina a few years back, we do know that it has the potential to spread in settings like a birthday party or a funeral.

Scott Weaver of the University of Texas Medical Branch told me that if there are no precautions taken, then one person will spread it to two other people on average.

Compare that with COVID, where the number has changed over time, but it has risen above 10 people.

And for measles, 15 other people get it from one case on average.

So Weaver's confident this hantavirus outbreak can be contained.

Measures like monitoring, masking, handwashing.

And another distinction from COVID, the time between being exposed to the virus and becoming contagious and sick is long, often multiple weeks.