Even though it feels like flu season may be dying down near you, across the country it is by no means going away just yet. However, there is evidence to suggest that not all of these cases are actually being caused by the Influenza virus. In Arizona, a 27 year old woman tested negatively for flu, pneumonia, and hepatitis after coming to the doctor with symptoms such as a shortness of breath weeks after her first visit. And the illness was only progressing. Finally, a test came back positive: Hantavirus.
Hantavirus are not very common and only about 700 cases have been found in the US since 1993 but have the potential to cause a sometimes fatal infection called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (~40% fatality rate). The virus is transmitted from rodents (through urine, feces, or nesting areas) and found primarily in the western and central areas of the United States. Doctors presumed that the woman from Arizona had the flu because the symptoms of an illness similar to a hantavirus infection resemble those of the flu (fever, body aches, nausea, fatigue, etc.). However, later the infection progresses to shortness of breath because the lungs begin to fill with fluid. It is unclear how the infected woman from Arizona acquired the virus but she is currently in intense care in New Mexico in an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine to help pump blood through an artificial lung outside of the body and then add it back to the body. Her conditions appear to be improving. However, this story is just another reminder that it is not just the flu circulating around the country. Physicians need to be careful to not become complacent to simply diagnosing the flu upon first glance because it may be the most common and easiest diagnosis.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/61869-hantavirus-infection-arizona-woman.html
-Alexandra
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