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Tracking a Mystery Disease:
Highlights of the Discovery of Hantavirus Pulmonary
Syndrome
An outbreak of unexplained illness
occurred in May 1993 in the "Four Corners," an area of
the Southwest shared by New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
A number of previously healthy young adults suddenly developed acute
respiratory symptoms; about half soon died. 
The New Mexico Department of Health, the Arizona Department of Health
Services, the Colorado Department of Health, the Utah Department
of Health, the Indian Health Service andCDC, with the assistance
of the Navajo Nation Division of Health, rapidly mounted an intensive
investigation.
Researchers soon suspected that they were dealing with a form of
hantavirus, which is transmitted by rodents. Researchers
then investigated the possible rodent connection,trapping rodents
in the affected area, doing tissue studies both of rodents and hantavirus
victims, until the virus and its principal carrier—the deer
mouse—were positively identified.
Why the Four Corners area? Simply because there was a
"bumper crop" of rodents there, due to heavy rains during the spring of 1993,
which produced an extra-plentiful supply of the foods that rodents eat.
Early on, it was also established that person-to-person
spread was unlikely. It was also determined that this "new"
hantavirus had actually been present, but unrecognized, at least as early as 1959. Since the 1993 outbreak, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS)
has been identified in over half of the states of the U.S.
Click here for a detailed version of the
story.
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National
Center for Infectious Diseases
