90-Second Read: She narrowly survived Hantavirus 30 years ago. Here’s what it was like.

Montiel says her mother stills cries thinking about her harrowing experience with Hantavirus, which, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, can have a fatality rate up to 38%, depending on the type of syndrome caused by it. Thirty years later, the shadow of Hantavirus still looms over Montiel's life. It also gave her health anxiety − a lingering dread that, one day, either the Hantavirus, or some other deadly pathogen, will infect her again.

At the age of 5, Montiel had felt sick for about a week, right around Halloween. Montiel's parents eventually took her to a hospital where a different doctor figured out the truth: Montiel had Hantavirus − and needed to get to a children's hospital for supportive care and close monitoring, immediately. By sharing her own story, Montiel hopes she can help others both understand the gravity of a Hantavirus infection, while keeping anxiety about far-reaching spread in perspective.

Per the CDC, there's still no treatment for Hantavirus. Doctors told her family they couldn't believe she survived. At first, her doctor told her family it was just the flu.