Virus Fatal to 30 in Southwest Claims First Northeast Victim

A respiratory virus that killed more than 30 people in the Southwest last summer has claimed its first victim in the Northeast, health officials confirmed Thursday.

The latest person to die from hantaviral pulmonary syndrome was identified as David Rosenberg, 22, a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. He died Jan. 20.

Government health experts said they believe Rosenberg contracted the virus during Christmas break, possibly in the Queens section of New York City where he reportedly helped clean out a rat- and mouse-infested warehouse.

That would be significant because the virus that infected the student has been found previously only in rural deer mice.

“This is important, because it is in an area where there are no deer mice,” said Dr. Rima Khabbaz, a member of the Hantavirus Task Force at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “If this involves rats common to inner cities, the implication is that more people will be exposed to the hantavirus.”

State and federal officials are searching areas that the man visited in New York and Rhode Island in hopes of finding traces of the hantavirus and infected rodents.

The virus is characterized by flu-like symptoms with fever, muscle aches, headache and cough, followed by respiratory failure as the lungs fill with fluid and the patient essentially drowns. The disease is fatal about 60% of the time.

Fifty-nine hantavirus cases have been identified in the United States since the disease was first recognized in May. Most of the victims came from the Four Corners area of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

The first case east of the Mississippi River showed up early last month in Indiana, when a 48-year-old teacher died three days after developing symptoms, including breathing problems, nausea and fever.