Hantavirus killed Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa. What is it and how does it spread?

Betsy Arakawa, a Classical pianist and the wife of recently deceased actor Gene Hackman, died of respiratory failure linked to a rare disease known as hantavirus, medical authorities said Friday.

The disease is found throughout the world in certain species of rodents, according to Dr. Bruce Farber, the chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health. In America, he added, it is most commonly “clustered” in the Southwest states.

How is hantavirus contracted?

While people can contract the virus through a bite or scratch from a rodent, it is more commonly contracted through inhaling urine or feces from certain species of mice, voles and other rodents, Farber said. When people “accidentally stir up those feces either cleaning or camping,” he added, the virus enters the air and can be inhaled. This is more of a concern when cleaning in confined or unventilated spaces, such as garages.

The disease is not known to spread human-to-human, according to Farber.

How common is hantavirus?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking the virus in 1993 after an outbreak was discovered in the Four Corners region, according to the agency’s website. A total of 864 cases of hantavirus were discovered throughout the nation from 1993 through 2022. The most common culprit carrying the disease in the United States is the deer mouse.

How dangerous is hantavirus?

Just over a third of all those who contract hantavirus in America die, according to the CDC.

In the United States, where it is generally clustered in the Southwest region, the disease can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a potentially fatal lung infection, according to Farber. In Europe and Asia, the virus more commonly results in renal failure.

“When you do get it, it’s often rapidly fatal,” as there is no direct treatment to combat the virus, only treatments to mitigate symptoms, or “supportive care,” Farber said.

What are the signs and symptoms of hantavirus?

Early on, a hantavirus infection may present itself “in a very nonspecific manner, like dozens of other diseases, everything from flu to pneumonia,” according to Farber. Their initial symptoms would include muscle aches, fever and feeling “crummy.”

These symptoms generally start to present themselves between one and eight weeks after exposure, according to the CDC, with an initial symptom of shortness of breath.

The late symptoms of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome lung infection — including tightness of the chest as fluid fills the lungs — may begin four to 10 days after initial illness, according to the CDC. Of the people who develop respiratory symptoms, 38% die. 

Have there been hantavirus cases on Long Island?

From 1993 through 2022, six cases of hantavirus were recorded in New York, according to the CDC. Three people infected died, the infections were not fatal in two cases, and the outcome of the sixth case is unknown. New York accounts for less than 1% of all cases ever recorded in the nation.

While hantavirus is uncommon in the region, a pair of deaths were linked to local infections.

Shortly after visiting his family home on Shelter Island for Christmas 1993, Rhode Island film student David Rosenberg died, and was determined to have contracted the infection, according to prior Newsday coverage of his death and subsequent investigations.

Nearly a year after his death, researchers announced that mice trapped on Shelter Island tested positive for hantavirus and suspected similarly infected rodents entered his family home and their droppings became airborne when the home was heated ahead of his visit.

In 1995, Verod Anthony Hopson, a 25-year-old Bridgehampton landscaper also died of hantavirus, Newsday reported at the time. Suffolk County health officials linked Hopson’s death to rodent droppings found in his home.