-NBC News
A possible case of hantavirus reported this week in Illinois serves as a stark reminder that the virus, which causes a potentially deadly disease, does exist in the United States.
There are currently no confirmed cases in the country of the hantavirus that occurred on the MV Hondius cruise ship since April, attributed to the Andean strain of this virus; so far it has not resulted in any infections in North America.
But there is a type of hantavirus in the United States, called Sin Nombre, which causes a pulmonary syndrome that can cause death and has some specialists worried.
“The hantavirus could cause the next pandemic, and we want to be able to prevent it.”
luis escobar, Virginia Tech Professor
Sin Nombre also spreads from rodents to people, usually when the urine, saliva or feces of those animals release particles into the air that can be inhaled.
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Arizona is where most of the known infections in the United States have occurred. However, several recent investigations have identified that at least three other states may become hot spots for hantavirus in the country.
That’s partly because there are up to 15 different species of rodents that carry hantavirus, many of which live in Virginia, Colorado and Texas, according to the Department of Wildlife and Conservation at Virginia Tech University.
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Specialists from that study house used blood samples and identified six species of rodents that were not previously known to be carriers of the virus, according to their work published in the journal Ecosphere.
Among these six species of rodents, there are some that are present in states on the American East Coast, where until now cases of hantavirus have been very rare.
“We see human cases fairly frequently in places like New Mexico, but if you look for cases of infection among rodents you’re going to see more in Virginia,” said Luis Escobar, an associate professor at Virginia Tech.
Escobar said he began conducting research on this topic after the COVID-19 pandemic, in an attempt to better understand what contributes to why certain viruses can jump from animals to humans and then possibly become infectious from person to person.
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He ended up focusing on hantavirus because some strains have a mortality rate of up to 50%; that is, they result in death in one out of every two cases.
“If we have these levels of mortality and there is human-to-human transmission, then the hantavirus could cause the next pandemic, and we want to be able to prevent it or at least be prepared,” Escobar said.
There is no indication that the current hantavirus outbreak that began on the MV Hondius cruise ship is the possible start of a pandemic, as officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have stressed on several occasions.
Until now, only the Andean strain is the one that has presented cases of transmission between people.
And every time temperatures begin to rise in the United States, there are reports of infections of other strains of hantavirus.
CDC data shows 890 reported cases of hantavirus in the United States since records began in the country in 1993.
“It is important for people to understand that these seasonal cases are different than those presented by the outbreak on the MV Hondius,” said David Fritter, incident management officer at the CDC, during a public briefing on Friday.
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Escobar’s research, based on more than 14,000 blood tests taken from rodents across the country between 2014 and 2019, was presented this March to CDC officials during a monthly series of meetings to discuss possible future zoonosis-type threats (diseases that are transmitted from animals or humans, or vice versa).
These meetings have also discussed topics such as the New World screwworm plague, a parasite that can infect livestock and, very rarely, people.
So it must be emphasized that just because a geographic area has the presence of rodents that could be carriers of the hantavirus or be infected, that does not mean that the humans who live there are automatically at risk.
CDC data shows 890 reported cases of hantavirus in the United States since records began in the country in 1993. Most have occurred on the West Coast: more than 120 cases have been reported in Colorado and a similar number in New Mexico, while there have been 92 confirmed cases in Arizona and 79 in California.
Virginia, one of the possible hot spots identified in Escobar’s investigations, has only had two confirmed cases of hantavirus; one happened in 1993 and the other in 2021.
About 35% of cases seen in the United States resulted in a death. Among them that of Betsy Arakawa, who was married to actor Gene Hackman and died of the virus in March 2025. A month later there were three other cases of hantavirus in the Mammoth Lakes area, in California.
Morgan Gorris, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, published research a few months ago showing that people who live in more arid or desert areas of the country, such as the Southwestern states, are more likely to be infected with hantavirus. It is because the air is drier and the temperatures are higher, such that it is easier for particles released by rodent waste to remain in the air.
“The virus can then be in that waste for at least several weeks,” Gorris said. “And if it doesn’t rain such that the excrement is diluted or carried away by the water, then the virus ends up in the air.”
Gorris said the risk also increases as humans occupy more animal habitats, because rodents that have hantavirus can emit more of the virus if they are stressed.
“There is a huge connection between humans, animals and the environment,” Gorris said. “When a new emerging disease arises it is very important to see how all the factors in that chain could be contributing.”
How to protect yourself from hantavirus and avoid possible contagion
The Illinois Department of Health reported on May 12 that it was investigating a possible case of infection in a person who may have contracted it while cleaning a house where there was rodent feces. This person had mild symptoms and is recovering; A specialized test still needs to confirm if it really was the virus.
The case shows the importance of taking precautions if rodent waste appears to be present.
The CDC and other experts have these recommendations for clearing out garages, sheds, campgrounds, and any other place that hasn’t been cleaned in a while or been occupied during the winter:
- Open windows and doors first to air out the area for at least 30 minutes before spending time inside.
- Wear rubber or rubber gloves when working in that area
- Gorris, from the Los Alamos laboratory, also suggests using face masks
- If there are rodent feces, which look like pellets, it is important No vacuum or move them with a broom, because that can release particles that have the virus into the air
- In the area where there is urine or feces, a disinfectant spray or a mixture of 1 gallon of water with 1.5 cups of bleach should be used. This product should remain on the area for at least five minutes.
- After that you can clean it using paper towels, which should be immediately thrown into a bag or closed trash container.
- Once that is done, you can clean the floors, surfaces and drawers using a disinfectant.
- Before taking off your gloves, wash your hands while wearing them so that if they are exposed to something, you will not touch it when you take them off. Once washed, you can remove them, and you must wash your hands again directly now.
