No doubt that you’ve recently read about the wife of actor Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa, dying from hantavirus.  Probably most of you have never heard about this virus.

The World Health Organization called hantavirus more deadly than COVID.  

Now, I have your attention. 

There was a hantavirus death years ago in Queens, NY.  A young man went to work in his father’s factory in the beginning of the summer.  He was sweeping out a storage room, and inhaled dust containing the hantavirus.  

Hantavirus was named for the Hantan River in South Korea.  In the 1960s, 3,000 U.S. troops became ill from hantavirus. The deer mouse is linked to the disease in the U.S.—the virus is found in deer mouse saliva, feces and urine.   You can catch the virus by inhaling urine-contaminated dust that contains the virus.

The inhaled virus gets into the lungs and bloodstream causing:

1. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, characterized by fatigue, malaise (bad feeling all over), headache and dizziness, along with abdominal problems. Four to 10 days later, the patient experiences coughing and tightness in the chest as the lungs fill with fluid.

2. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome

One to two weeks after exposure, the patient can experience the symptoms above as well as internal bleeding and kidney failure.

There is a vaccine for hantavirus, but it is only available for people working with or in a rodent population.

Since hantavirus symptoms in the beginning mimic several other diseases, if you have a reason to be concerned, let your physician know that you have been around rodents. 

Food for thought

When I return to my country home in May, before I open the shed, I put on a mask and I have my hose nozzle set at ”mist.”  As soon as I open the shed door, I spray the mist into the air so that it will bring any dust particles floating in the air down to the floor. 

As I bring out the lawn furniture, I hose it off as well. I have no idea if rodents got into my shed during the winter, but I know that they are all over the place in the summer. I take precautions.

Better safe than sorry.

Michael Kossove is Professor Emeritus and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology, Touro University, School of Health Sciences.