New Death May Be Linked to Mystery Illness

A 22-year-old woman from northwest New Mexico died Wednesday after suffering symptoms resembling a mystery illness that has killed about a dozen others, the governor’s office announced.

“Authorities suspect that her death was caused by acute respiratory distress related to the recent illness outbreak in Southwestern states, but confirmation of that will require further tests,” said John McKean, press secretary to Gov. Bruce King. The woman’s name and hometown were not immediately released.

Of 18 confirmed cases of the illness since early February, seven in New Mexico and four in Arizona have been fatal. Most victims have been young, healthy Navajos. It was not immediately known if the woman who died Wednesday was a Navajo.

The most recent case of the illness was reported May 28, when a 13-year-old girl collapsed near Gallup and died the next day. The woman who died Wednesday was among three new suspected cases reported earlier in the day.

“It is not abating,” Dr. Norton Kalishman, chief medical officer for the New Mexico Health Department, said of the disease.

Researchers said they had found more evidence that the flu-like illness might be caused by a virus found in rodent droppings. Six of nine people tested have had antibodies to the Hantavirus, Kalishman said.

Some strains of Hantavirus have up to a 42-day incubation period, meaning it can take that long for a person to develop symptoms of the disease after they are exposed.

Kalishman said it would take weeks to determine if the people whose cases were reported Wednesday were suffering from the illness. “There’s nothing we can do other than to send the blood out for tests,” he said.

The other possible cases were reported in Arizona and in Durango, Colo., Kalishman said.

The woman who died and the person in Arizona were scheduled to receive the experimental drug ribavirin, which has been effective in treating strains of Hantavirus found in China, Kalishman said. It was not immediately known if the woman who died had received the medication.

Kalishman said that two additional victims of the ailment had tested positive for antibodies to Hantavirus. One case was negative and was being retested and two tests were inconclusive, he said. Four had previously tested positive for the antibody.

“Clearly Hantavirus has been identified through the antibodies, and that clearly leads to a conclusion that it’s part of the illness,” Kalishman said.

He added, however, that other causes are still being investigated, and that Hantavirus might not be the only cause.

When Hantavirus, which is common in Asia and occurs more rarely in Europe, has caused death, it has usually been because of kidney failure. None of the U.S. victims developed kidney problems, but they have suffered respiratory failure.

Four types of Hantavirus are known in Asia, and they live in various rodents. The virus is carried in airborne particles of rodent waste.

It is not known which rodent in the United States might be carrying the new form of the virus, said Ted Brown, a state Environment Department rodent expert.

He said one known type of Hantavirus has been found in Norway rats in Baltimore.