90-Second Read: Sin Nombre Hantavirus Strain Kills One In Arizona

Everything to know about the Sin Nombre strain of Hantavirus, from mortality rate to how it spreads. 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. That's how many Hantavirus cases were reported in the United States from 1993 to the end of 2023, the latest CDC data available. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is the most common Hantavirus syndrome found in the Western Hemisphere and is caused by the type of so-called "New World Hantaviruses" most often seen in the U.S., including the Sin Nombre variant.

Global fears about Hantaviruses, a group of rare, often fatal viruses usually spread to humans through contact with rodents, have spiked in the last month since an outbreak was reported onboard a cruise ship sailing near Antarctica called the MV Hondius. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington and California have had the most cases, and Hantavirus is much more widespread in the Western United States than the east. In those 30 years, nine states have never registered a Hantavirus case: Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri. Since the outbreak was discovered, passengers from the MV Hondius have returned to their home country where they're undergoing various quarantine and isolation measures for a full 42 days, the incubation period of the Andes virus.

Sin Nombre, which means "nameless virus" 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. 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'd 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 of 38%. 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.