08-03-2025
What is hantavirus? The disease that killed Gene Hackman's wife
When Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, speculation over what could have been the cause of their deaths was rife. The authorities quickly ruled out foul play; the actor's daughters suspected a possible carbon monoxide leak. Within days, US reporting revealed Arakawa had been found in the bathroom near a countertop scattered with prescription pills (they were later found to be thyroid medication, and are said to have played no role in her death).
Few could have predicted, though, that autopsies would eventually reveal Hackman died of heart failure a week after his wife, who had contracted hantavirus, a potentially life-threatening rodent-borne disease.
Hantavirus will likely have been unknown to most people in the UK before this week, though in the US it's more common. In America, there are often signs telling people to beware of hantavirus in hotspot areas. A group of zoonotic diseases (meaning they can, in rare cases, spread from animals to humans), hantaviruses are carried in some mice, rats and voles, and tend to spread through their urine.
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What is hantavirus?
How do you catch hantavirus?
Does hantavirus exist in the UK?
What are symptoms of hantavirus?
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that circulate in rodents. The types of hantavirus you could be exposed to will differ depending on where you are in the world, as certain species of rodent carry certain strains of hantavirus. This also means the symptoms will differ in the small number of humans who contract the virus, as different strains cause different immune responses.
'In America, there are several types of hantavirus – some are more dangerous to people than others,' says Professor Malcolm Bennett, an expert in zoonoses from rodents at Nottingham University. In Eurasia, he says, one of the most common hantaviruses is known as 'Seoul virus' because 'it was first found in rats in Seoul during the Seoul Olympics'.
Seoul virus (which affects the kidneys rather than the lungs when contracted by humans) is found in brown rats worldwide. 'That's the one we have in the UK,' he says. 'There are other hantaviruses found in the UK in voles, but they don't seem to infect people. And most of these viruses don't cause disease in people – [they] don't jump species.'
Rodents carrying hantavirus are infected 'for life', though if you had a pet rat or mouse which was infected (which is possible – it isn't only wild rodents that carry the disease) it wouldn't be obvious they had it as the rodents themselves don't tend to be symptomatic. It is most often found in wild rodents, though, and tends to appear in clusters. 'You'll suddenly have a hotspot,' explains Bennett, as the virus 'circulates in breeding areas'.
If a rodent is carrying the virus, it could be contractable via their urine. If a pet rat or mouse has the virus, you could catch it when clearing out their cage as the dried urine becomes an aerosol when you sweep it up. What is more likely (and much more so, Bennett says, in America than in Britain) is that you would be exposed to the urine of a wild rodent when clearing out, say, a shed or a basement. 'You might be sweeping out a shed and the dust blows up and you inhale that,' he says.
In America, where it's still relatively rare – as of the end of 2022, just 864 cases of the virus had been reported since the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking it in 1993 – hantavirus tends to be carried by 'deer mice', says Dr Chris Smith, a consultant virologist and lecturer at Cambridge University. '[Deer mice] are common in certain geographies, including various places in the US.
'The mice shed the virus in faeces and urine. When people clear it up, the viral particles become airborne and are breathed in, causing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.'
Regular exposure to the virus will make it more likely you will contract it. 'You need to be frequently infected before you get [the] disease,' says Bennett. 'The more constant your exposure the more likely you are to become infected. It's like Covid – if you're with lots of people who have it, you'll get it.'
That's not to say that if you're exposed to the virus you will definitely fall ill. 'Surveys suggest that more people have been infected and have antibodies than have knowingly had [the] disease,' he says.
The only form of hantavirus found in the UK that can infect humans is the Seoul virus, says Bennett. It is found in brown rats – both wild and (very occasionally) pet ones. '[It can] get to pet rats through contamination from wild rats,' he says, adding: 'not every wild rat has it.'
Still, it is extremely rare that the virus will be contracted by humans at all. And you couldn't, it's important to note, get it from house mice. 'We've never found any viruses in house mice,' he says. Nor have experts found hantavirus in 'voles or wood mice'.
'I've been part of groups that have been out and looked and we find hantaviruses in some wild voles, but they're the ones which don't seem to infect people.'
If a human contracts hantavirus, the symptoms will differ depending on which strain you have been in contact with, which also depends on where in the world you are. In the US, the most common reaction is a pulmonary syndrome – a potentially fatal condition which affects the lungs. The CDC says symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome usually begin to show one to eight weeks after coming into contact with an infected rodent. 'Your lungs fill up with fluid and it's a very high mortality rate,' says Bennett. The virus begins with flu-like symptoms, but the deterioration can be 'pretty rapid', he says, as the capillaries in the lungs begin to leak. 'You die because there is an immune reaction to the virus in your lungs.'
The form of hantavirus most common in Europe and Asia tends to affect the kidneys. Seoul virus causes a renal syndrome – usually, according to the CDC, coming on one to two weeks after exposure. Initial symptoms begin suddenly and include intense headaches, back and abdominal pain, fever and blurred vision.
It's possible to have a mild case which clears up quickly, in which case you would likely never know you had contracted the virus. But if you fell seriously ill, Bennett says, it would be clear that you had some kind of kidney infection, so your GP would simply test your blood, send it off and discover the hantavirus.
When caught, doctors will treat the symptoms of the virus. Most often, this will just involve supportive care, such as hydration. In the most severe cases, this could mean intubation for a pulmonary syndrome, or dialysis for a renal syndrome.
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