2 More Deaths Blamed on Hantavirus : Health: Experts fear one of the fatalities may have been caused by a new strain of the mysterious ‘Four Corners disease.’

Two new deaths attributed to the mysterious “Four Corners disease” have been identified in Oregon and Louisiana, the latter ominously caused by a new strain of virus carried by a different rodent, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The new cases suggest that the disease could exist elsewhere in the country and that much of the western and southern United States may be at risk.

The disease, which has so far killed 33 people who suffocated when their lungs filled with fluid, had been linked to a hantavirus carried by the deer mouse.

But CDC officials said the new case in Louisiana was caused by a strain of hantavirus different from that seen in the other patients. Furthermore, the Louisiana case and one reported in east Texas are outside the normal range of the deer mouse, indicating that the new strain may be carried by a different rodent.

“I wouldn’t call it alarming, but I don’t think we have found the geographic extent of the disease yet,” said Dr. Steven Ostroff of the CDC. “As time goes along, we will realize that there are hantaviruses in many different locations in North America.”

The disease was discovered in the Four Corners area, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona come together; the bulk of the confirmed cases are in that area. But in the last three weeks, researchers have found cases in Texas, Nevada and California, in addition to the new cases in Oregon and Louisiana.

The California cases involved a woman graduate student from Mammoth, a Santa Barbara ranch hand and an Orange County man who had recently visited the Four Corners area. The Orange County man, 64-year-old George Wolff, survived.

The CDC has received reports of unexplained respiratory distress syndrome similar to the Four Corners illness from more than 30 states. The bulk of blood and tissue samples from those cases have not tested positive for the presence of hantaviruses. “But because we haven’t yet isolated the virus, we can only say that the samples have not tested positive, not that the virus is not there,” Ostroff said.

The two newest cases were a 16-year-old boy who died in Oregon in July, 1992, and a 58-year-old bridge inspector who died in June. Neither had traveled to the Four Corners area.

The CDC is setting traps around the man’s home in Monroe, La., in hopes of identifying the carrier. Although researchers have not isolated the Four Corners hantavirus, they have obtained enough genetic information to know that it is different from the eight known hantaviruses. Genetic analysis on the virus from the Louisiana man showed that it is different not only from the first eight hantaviruses, but also from the Four Corners strain.

Furthermore, Ostroff said, “The rodent experts we have been talking to, as well as the textbooks, say that the deer mouse does not inhabit the area this individual (the Louisiana case) lived in, nor the area of the earlier case in east Texas. . . . This leads us to conclude we may be dealing with a different (strain of) virus that may well have a different rodent host.”