Hantavirus Outbreak Tracker is an independent public-information site. It is not affiliated with CDC, WHO, ECDC, or any public-health authority.
The tracker is designed to make outbreak information easier to follow by summarizing public sources, linking back to those sources, and labeling the status of each data point.
Source hierarchy
When sources conflict, the tracker should prioritize sources in this order:
- Official public-health agencies directly responsible for the event.
- International public-health organizations, including WHO and ECDC.
- National, state, provincial, or regional health authorities.
- Official hospital, port, cruise operator, or transport statements when relevant.
- Reputable media reports, clearly labeled and not treated as official confirmation unless supported by an official source.
Primary sources
The tracker may use sources such as:
- CDC hantavirus pages and health advisories
- WHO Disease Outbreak News
- ECDC outbreak updates, assessments, and rapid advice
- National health ministries
- State or local health departments
- Official port, transport, or ship operator statements
- Peer-reviewed or technical outbreak reports where relevant
Case-status labels
Every case count or event should be labeled. Recommended labels:
| Label | Meaning | Use in tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Official confirmed | Laboratory-confirmed and reported by an official health authority | Use for confirmed case counts |
| Official probable | Reported by an official source as probable under a stated case definition | Use separately from confirmed cases |
| Official suspected | Reported by an official source as suspected or under investigation | Do not combine with confirmed without labeling |
| Monitored contact | Person under monitoring because of possible exposure | Do not count as a case |
| Media reported | Reported by reputable media but not yet official | Use only with clear caveat |
| Under review | Data point found but not yet reconciled | Keep out of headline totals |
| Historical/background | Stable context not part of current case count | Use in explainers only |
How case counts should be displayed
Confirmed, probable, suspected, monitored, hospitalized, recovered, and deceased counts should not be merged into one number unless the page clearly explains what the number means.
Recommended display:
- Confirmed cases
- Probable cases
- Suspected cases
- Deaths
- Hospitalized cases
- Monitored contacts
- Countries or jurisdictions involved
- Last updated timestamp
- Source timestamp
If a source gives "total cases" and includes probable cases, the tracker should say that explicitly.
Conflict-resolution rules
When two sources disagree:
- Prefer the most recent official source directly responsible for the jurisdiction or event.
- If WHO/ECDC/CDC publish a later synthesis, use it as the main summary source and preserve jurisdictional details underneath.
- Do not silently overwrite a number without changing the source timestamp.
- If a media report is ahead of official sources, label it as media-reported and keep it out of official confirmed totals.
- If a person is later ruled out, update the relevant row as "non-case" or "removed after negative test" rather than deleting the historical explanation without trace.
Update cadence
The live tracker may update more often than the evergreen pages. The evergreen pages should be reviewed periodically, not rewritten daily.
Recommended cadence:
| Content type | Update cadence |
|---|---|
| Live tracker numbers | As data pipeline permits |
| Current outbreak status card | Daily during active outbreak |
| Evergreen symptom/transmission/prevention pages | Monthly during active outbreak, quarterly afterward |
| FAQ | Monthly during active outbreak |
| Methodology page | When source or classification rules change |
| Schema and metadata | At launch, then after major page changes |
What counts as a source
A source should be linkable, attributable, and dated where possible.
Good sources include:
- Official agency pages
- Official press releases
- Health advisories
- Situation reports
- Epidemiological updates
- Formal assessments
- Peer-reviewed outbreak studies
- Reputable news reports used only as secondary context
Weak sources include:
- Unsourced social media claims
- Screenshots without provenance
- Aggregators that do not link to original sources
- AI-generated summaries without primary links
- Reposted numbers with no date or author
What the tracker does not claim
The tracker does not claim to:
- Diagnose individual illness
- Provide medical advice
- Replace public-health instructions
- Confirm cases independently without source support
- Predict future case counts
- Identify unreported cases
- Determine legal responsibility for an outbreak
- Give travel, quarantine, or isolation instructions
Editorial standards
Every page should follow these rules:
- Write plainly.
- Avoid panic language.
- Preserve uncertainty.
- Use official terminology.
- Separate confirmed facts from developing reports.
- Link to primary sources.
- Show the last reviewed date.
- Explain case definitions when using case counts.
- Avoid implying that monitored contacts are confirmed cases.
- Avoid implying that general-public risk is the same as exposed-contact risk.
Data-field recommendation
For each tracker row, store at least:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
event_id | Stable internal ID |
date_reported | Date the source reported the data |
source_name | Name of source |
source_url | Canonical source link |
source_type | Official, international, regional, media, technical |
jurisdiction | Country, state, region, ship, or facility |
case_status | Confirmed, probable, suspected, monitored, non-case |
count | Number reported |
count_type | Cases, deaths, hospitalizations, contacts, tests |
summary | Human-readable description |
confidence | High, medium, low |
last_checked | Timestamp when tracker checked source |
display_flag | Whether it appears in headline totals |
Source register display
Add a visible source register table on this page with columns:
- Source
- Type
- What it is used for
- Update frequency
- Last checked
- Link
The table should be sortable and filterable, but it must also be readable as ordinary HTML.
Related pages
- Live outbreak tracker
- Hantavirus symptoms
- How hantavirus spreads
- What is Andes virus?
- Hantavirus prevention
- Hantavirus FAQ
Source register
| Source | Type | What it is used for | Update frequency | Last checked | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDC | Official public-health agency | Hantavirus background, Andes virus details, prevention, cleanup, and current situation context | As agency updates | 2026-05-12 | Open source |
| WHO | International public-health organization | Disease Outbreak News and multi-country outbreak context | As agency updates | 2026-05-12 | Open source |
| ECDC | International public-health organization | European outbreak assessment and regional public-health advice | As agency updates | 2026-05-12 | Open source |
| National and regional health authorities | Official health authority | Jurisdiction-specific case labels, contact monitoring, and public guidance | When new reports appear | 2026-05-12 | Open source |
| Verified media reports | Secondary source | Developing context only when official sources are unavailable or delayed | Manual review only | 2026-05-12 | Open source |