Epidemiologist warns of rare but severe Andes hantavirus; San Patricio risk described as low

Dr. James Mobley, an epidemiology instructor at Sam Houston State University, told the San Patricio County Commissioners Court that recent international reports show a severe but hard-to-transmit strain of hantavirus. "This Andes strain ... is a really deadly strain, but it's very hard to contract," he said, summarizing an outbreak tied to the motor vessel Hondius that reported 11 cases and three deaths.

Mobley walked commissioners through the timeline investigators have reported — an ornithologist's exposure during a landfill visit, subsequent illness aboard a vessel, and repatriation of passengers — and said U.S. public-health monitoring currently lists about 41 people under observation across 16 states, with two in Texas. "There is no treatment. Prevention is rodent control, and it's low risk," Mobley said, emphasizing that the county's primary protections are surveillance and avoiding close contact with symptomatic patients.

Mobley also referenced a separate Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and cautioned that delays in seeking care can worsen outcomes; he noted the county's lack of a local hospital as a factor that increases vulnerability to rapidly progressive infections. The briefing concluded with an offer to take questions and for local officials to continue monitoring travel-related exposure and public-health guidance.