[FRIAM] Hackmann deaths - Hanta virus in Santa Fe ?

[Santafe]

Yeah; not likely a coverup.  An odd way to die though.

Deer mice are everywhere in Santa Fe.  If you burn firewood, you clear nests of them out of your woodpile year-round.  Often very big ones.  And they invade houses, inexorably.  I think they have transporters.

A thing I read that is very interesting is that serum tests of rodent breeders apparently show very high incidence of antibodies to hantaviruses.  So the 30-50% case fataility rates perhaps apply to those that rise to being symptomatic or those that lead to the pulmonary stage.  (I don’t know; trying to reconcile my own confusions.)  It may be that sub-clinical infections are much more common, and lead to some level of immunity, like milkmaids didn’t get smallpox (though that is a distinct phenomenon in other respects).

So when it is claimed to be “rare”, I think I want to have more thorough language.  I didn’t think it was rare among the mice, especially since they can carry chronically without being sick.  Nothing to stop its spreading very widely, and I thought I remembered reading some survey many years ago that it is commonly found in wild populations.  It is interesting that — if the things I read were correct — the North American strain (sin nombre virus) wasn’t identified until the 1993 outbreak, which I remember well, making use of experience with the Old World strains that had been known since the 1950s.  Obviously it wasn’t new to the area, which makes me think that some level of exposure has probably been common for 10ks of years, but with relatively small rates of progress to severe symptoms.  

At LANL, there is constant and relentless safety training.  And one of their topics is don’t mess with mouse nests or burrows.  It’s odd that Becky Arakawa would not have been careful about it.  They seemed both to have been educated and worldly people.  I guess one gets casual, living around mice all the time. 

Eric



> On Mar 8, 2025, at 9:29 AM, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Just saw news videos of Santa Fe county's medical examiner claiming the Hackman deaths were due to Hanta virus ?
> Just curious to know if Hanta virus is common in NM ? Or, is it some sort of cover up ?
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIcNMLepWuk
> 
> Sarbajit Roy (India)
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