Three deaths in California during the past 14 months have been linked to an arenavirus, a rare virus never before acquired by humans in North America, State Health Director Diana M. Bont , R.N., Dr. P.H., announced today. UTMB has one of the few laboratories in the country equipped to test for arenaviruses.
Further testing is under way.
The three individuals were each hospitalized with fever and respiratory distress. Two of them also had severe liver disease and bleeding consistent with viral hemorrhagic fever. Like hantavirus, which causes a rare, but often fatal respiratory disease, arenaviruses are believed to be transmitted to humans through inhalation of dust contaminated with the urine, feces or saliva of infected rodents. Human infection with arenavirus is also likely to be very uncommon. Arenavirus infection has been documented in rodents in Southern California in recent years.