Topline<\/p>\n
An Arizona resident has died from a case of hantavirus, state health officials announced this week, specifically of a strain named Sin Nombre that is just as deadly as the Andes strain that made headlines this year for killing multiple people in a cruise ship outbreak. <\/p>\n
Specialist workers carry boxes containing hazardous waste as they begin the process of disinfecting the cruise ship MV Hondius on May 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
The Arizona patient is the first to die<\/a> in the state this year of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, one of two syndromes caused by hantaviruses, which presents as fatigue, fever, muscle aches, abdominal problems, headaches, chills and dizziness in the early stages and evolves to cause chest tightness, coughing, shortness of breath and lungs filling with fluid. <\/p>\n Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome <\/a>is the most common hantavirus syndrome found in the Western Hemisphere and is caused by the type of so-called \u201cNew World hantaviruses\u201d most often seen in the U.S., including the Sin Nombre variant. <\/p>\n Sin Nombre, which means \u201cnameless virus\u201d in Spanish, is primarily spread by deer mice and usually passes to humans who inhale airborne particles of dried urine, droppings or saliva from infected mice, most commonly in agricultural settings. <\/p>\n Unlike the Andes variant, which spread aboard the cruise ship, Sin Nombre is not transmitted person to person but has historically carried a 36% case-fatality rate<\/a> in the United States. <\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n Global fears about hantaviruses\u2014a group of rare, often fatal viruses usually spread to humans through contact with rodents\u2014have spiked in the last month since an outbreak was reported onboard a cruise ship sailing near Antarctica called the MV Hondius. The illness is thought to have been brought aboard by an elderly Dutch couple, both of whom have since died, and it later spread to roughly one dozen people who\u2019d made contact with other infected people. The hantavirus variant, called Andes, is the only one known to transmit from person to person and those who develop symptoms have a mortality rate<\/a> of 38%. Since the outbreak was discovered, passengers from the MV Hondius have returned to their home country where they\u2019re undergoing various quarantine and isolation measures for a full 42 days\u2014the incubation period of the Andes virus. More than one dozen Americans, none of whom have developed symptoms, were quarantining at a facility in Nebraska until some chose to go home on May 25. They will have to finish quarantining at home. Some chose to stay in Nebraska for the full 42-day period. <\/p>\n Big Number<\/p>\n 890. That’s how many hantavirus cases were reported in the United States from 1993 to the end of 2023, the latest CDC data<\/a> available. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington and California have had the most cases, and hantavirus is much more widespread<\/a> in the Western United States than the east. <\/p>\n Surprising Fact<\/p>\n In those 30 years, nine states<\/a> have never registered a hantavirus case: Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri. <\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesHantavirus Patients Under Quarantine Could Go Home\u2014If They Agree To 24\/7 Surveillance, Report Says (Latest Updates)By Mary Whitfill Roeloffs<\/a>ForbesWorld Isn\u2019t Ready For Another Pandemic And \u2018Moving In The Wrong Direction,\u2019 WHO Report SaysBy Mary Whitfill Roeloffs<\/a>ForbesNo, Ivermectin Is Not Proven To Treat HantavirusBy Mary Whitfill Roeloffs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline An Arizona resident has died from a case of hantavirus, state health officials announced this week, specifically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1003504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[9643,152336,20808,1904,105,278283,16,15],"class_list":["post-1003503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-americans","tag-andes","tag-arizona","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-sin-nombre-hantavirus","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116688468557901798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}