The Hantavirus that was identified in the 1993 in an outbreak in New Mexico and is also known as Sin Nombre Virus – Spanish for “the virus with no name”.
Hantaviruses are not new, nor are they transmitted between people, but through rodents in rural areas, and can cause hemorrhagic fever with kidney involvement or cardiopulmonary syndrome, an infection that can be fatal. The Hantavirus is a type of virus that is transmitted to humans by aerosol droppings of some rodents. They can cause hemorrhagic
Author affiliations: Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil (T.M. Wilson); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (T.M. Wilson, C.D. Paddock, S. Reagan-Steiner, J. Bhatnagar, R.B. Martines, H. Venkat, S.R. Zaki); Pinal County Office of the Medical Examiner, Florence, Arizona, USA (A.L. Wiens); Coconino County Health and Human Services Medical Examiner’s Office, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA (M. Madsen); Arizona Department of Health Services, Phoenix, Arizona, USA (K.K. Komatsu, H. Venkat)
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) shares common clinicopathologic features with other severe pulmonary illnesses. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome was diagnosed in 2 patients in Arizona, USA, suspected of dying from infection with SARS-CoV-2. Differential diagnoses and possible co-infections should be considered for cases of respiratory distress during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.