Breathing in the virus is the most common way of becoming infected, however, you can also become infected by touching your mouth or nose after handling contaminated materials. A rodent's bite can also spread the virus. Hantavirus is not spread from person to person. You cannot become infected by being near a person who has hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome usually appear within 2 weeks of infection but can appear as early as 3 days to and as late as 6 weeks after infection.
First symptoms are general and flu-like.
Sometimes nausea and vomiting also occur. The primary symptom of this disease is difficulty in breathing, which is caused by fluid build-up in the lungs and quickly progresses to an inability to breathe. No cure or vaccine is yet available for hantavirus infection. After infection, the sooner medical treatment is sought, the better chance of recovery. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a rare disease, and most tourists are not at increased risk for hantavirus infection.