Topline
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.
Specialist workers carry boxes containing hazardous waste as they begin the process of disinfecting the cruise ship MV Hondius on May 18, 2026.
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Key Facts
The Arizona patient is the first to die 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.
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.
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.
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 in the United States.
Key Background
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. 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%. 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. 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.
Big Number
890. That’s how many hantavirus cases were reported in the United States from 1993 to the end of 2023, the latest CDC data available. 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.
Surprising Fact
In those 30 years, nine states have never registered a hantavirus case: Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri.