The rare illness that killed Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, has also been the cause of death of three people in a remote area in California.
Health officials in Mono County, California, said three people died after contracting hantavirus.
Public health officials said it was “strikingly unusual” to have three hantavirus deaths this early in the year. They all fell sick in February.
Typically, hantavirus is found in late spring or summer.
“We believe that deer mouse numbers are high this year in Mammoth (and probably elsewhere in the Eastern Sierra). An increase in door mice elevates the risk of Hantavirus exposure,” Mono County public health officer, Tom Boo, said in a statement.
No additional cases have been reported.
Hantavirus can be spread from rodents to humans when people come in contact with urine, droppings and saliva.
Symptoms can include fatigue, fever, muscle aches, coughing and shortness of breath. Severe cases can spread to the lungs and become deadly. It can progress quickly.
One person who died was described as a young adult and it is not known how they contracted the virus.
“We don’t have a clear sense of where this young adult may have contracted the virus,” Boo said. “The home had no evidence of mouse activity. We observed some mice in the workplace, which is not unusual for indoor spaces this time of year in Mammoth Lakes. We haven’t identified any other activities in the weeks before illness that would have increased this person’s exposure to mice or their droppings.”
The first cases of hantavirus, tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came from the Four Corners area of the country, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah converge in 1993.
Most cases still come from the western part of the country.
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