Fact Check: Was Hantavirus Created for Global Elite Profits?

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Posts on Instagram and TikTok since May 2026 have spread the narrative that the Hantavirus was deliberately circulated by the global elite for business gain. This narrative cites statements by Police Commissioner General (Ret.) Dr. Dharma Pongrekun, M.M., who is said to be a biochemist and geopolitical observer.

This claim emerged after several passengers on the cruise ship MV Hondius, en route from Ushuaia (Argentina) to the Canary Islands (Spain), were infected with hantavirus in April–May 2026.

Is the emergence of the Hantavirus really a conspiracy by the global elite for business gain?

FACT CHECK

Tempo verified the content by comparing it to several research reports, credible information, and expert statements. The results showed that the Hantavirus is a natural pathogen that has infected humans since the 1950s, not a laboratory creation.

Dharma Pongrekun Is Not a Biochemistry and Geopolitics Expert

The circulating narrative relies on statements by Dharma Pongrekun. The retired three-star National Police general accused the hantavirus of being a lie and a rumor spread by the global elite for financial gain.

Tempo's investigation revealed that Dharma has no educational background in biochemistry or geopolitics. A 1988 graduate of the Indonesian Military Academy, he spent his entire military career in the police force, specializing in criminal investigations.

He previously served as Deputy Director of General Crimes at the Indonesian National Police Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim Polri) (2015–2016), Director of Narcotics Crimes at the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim Polri), and Deputy Head of the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) in July 2019. In academics, Dharma completed his Masters in Law at Gadjah Mada University in 2006 and received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from MBC University Depok in 2023.

When contacted by Tempo on June 4, 2026, Dharma argued that his opinion was based on linguistic analysis. He stated that the word "hanta" in Hebrew means "lie." He also questioned the validity of virus testing by the international scientific community. "Correct information should not be determined by the number of academics who acknowledge the research results," Dharma said.

However, this etymology claim is incorrect. An official document from the National Library of Medicine (2010) notes that the name Hantavirus is derived from the Hantan River in South Korea, where the rat host for the virus was first isolated.

Hantavirus: A Natural Pathogen, Not a Business Commodity

Dr. Candra Bumi, M.Sc., a lecturer in Molecular Epidemiology & Immunology at the University of Jember (Unej), explained that the Hantavirus was identified by virologist Professor Ho Wang Lee in 1976 following a dengue fever outbreak in South Korea. Since the late 1960s, Lee had captured more than 3,000 rodents in the South Korean border region, suspecting the outbreak originated from rats.

Lee finally identified the virus that causes hemorrhagic fever from a rat captured near the Hantan River, a river that flows through the northern Gangwon and Gyeonggi Provinces. This virus was later named hantavirus, a new member of the Bunyaviridae family.

Hantaviruses cause two diseases in humans: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HPS), with a mortality rate ranging from 1 to 38 percent.

From 1950 to 2007, China recorded 1,557,622 cases of HFRS in 29 of its 31 provinces, with 46,427 deaths, or approximately 3 percent. In the United States, 890 cases were traced from the 1993 outbreak to the end of 2023, where the virus causes HPS, a rare and fatal respiratory disease.

In Indonesia, from 2024 to 2026, 256 suspected cases of HFRS emerged, 23 of which were confirmed. These cases were spread across Jakarta, West Java, Yogyakarta, North Sulawesi, West Sumatra, and East Nusa Tenggara, with no HPS cases reported in Indonesia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Hantavirus infection is relatively rare, with approximately 10,000 to more than 100,000 cases per year globally, with the largest burden in Asia and Europe. The mortality rate is less than 1 to 15 percent in Asia and Europe, and up to 50 percent in the Americas. According to Candra, although research into a vaccine to control Hantavirus infection is ongoing, no vaccine has yet been distributed globally.

CONCLUSION

Tempo's verification concluded that the narrative suggesting that hantavirus was deliberately introduced for business purposes is a false claim.

TEMPO FACT CHECK TEAM

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