2nd Hantavirus Patient Dies in Montana

A 29-year-old man has died from hantavirus, the second death from the disease in less than two weeks in Montana, officials said Tuesday.

Laurel Riek, a spokeswoman for the city-county health department in Helena, said officials were investigating how the man contracted the disease. It is the third reported case in the state in the last two weeks.

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a severe respiratory infection spread by rodent urine, feces or saliva. People typically become sick two weeks after breathing virus particles stirred up in a rodent-infested space. No cure has been developed.