Mystery Illness Is Linked to Virus in Rats

The mystery illness that has stricken the Four Corners area of New Mexico and Arizona may be caused by a virus carried by rodents and transmitted in rodent droppings and urine, New Mexico authorities said Friday.

Preliminary tests from three of the 18 victims of the mystery disease, which has now killed 11 young and apparently healthy people, showed the presence of hantavirus, an obscure virus that more often causes kidney damage rather than the respiratory distress syndrome seen in victims in the region.

The preliminary findings by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not been confirmed, said Dr. Gary Simpson of the New Mexico Department of Health.

“We realize we may be in error, but we are choosing to release the preliminary indications because there may, in fact, be treatment implications,” Simpson said. “There are anti-viral drugs that have shown activity against this class of viruses.”

There have been no new cases of the disease reported since May 29, and authorities Friday reduced the death toll from the previously announced 13 to 11. Two of the suspected victims, they said, died of unrelated pneumonia. That announcement also reduced the number of confirmed cases to 18.

About two-thirds of the victims have been American Indians, and all but one had links to the Four Corners region.

Outbreaks of disease caused by hantavirus, which also is called hantaan virus, previously occurred among U.S. troops in the Korean War and are now most commonly seen among people who work in forests or fields near forests.

Outbreaks have also occurred in urban areas, such as Osaka, Japan, with large populations of rodents.

Some public health authorities in this country have warned that the disease could become more common in cities if rat abatement programs are reduced by budgetary cutbacks.

Animals themselves do not become sick from the virus. It is also not spread by person-to-person contact, a finding that brings great comfort to investigators studying the mystery illness, as well as others who have come into contact with victims.

If the epidemic has been the result of hantavirus infections, experts said, it is unlikely that the disease will be spread outside the region. There also is little danger to tourists visiting the area, they said.

If the epidemic was caused by hantavirus, Simpson said, it may represent the emergence of a new form of the virus because the symptoms are substantially different from those previously known.

New Mexico and Arizona health authorities immediately cautioned residents to avoid cleaning up rodent burrows or nests and sweeping houses when rodent droppings are present, as well as to stay away from rodents. Authorities said they will develop new guidelines for safely disposing of the droppings.

They also asked Navajo medicine men to halt cleansing ceremonies in regions where victims lived for fear that the sweeping, which is an integral part of the ceremonies, would stir up dust with rodent droppings and spread the disease.

Navajo Vice President Marshall Plummer said advice against the cleansing ceremonies would be ignored.

“We don’t conduct these ceremonies in barns or places where there are a lot of droppings,” Plummer said. He added that people “need to understand that our religion is very sacred to us and that our practice is very sacred to us and that we will continue our ceremonies.”

The disease, which first came to public attention last week, is now known as unexplained respiratory distress syndrome or URDS, although some call it Four Corners disease. Victims first develop a fever, muscle aches and either coughing, headache or reddening of the eyes. As the disease progresses, fluids build up in the lungs, literally suffocating the patients.