page_title: 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak
section_title: Discovery of Sin Nombre virus
hierarchical_section_title: 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak / Discovery of Sin Nombre virus
caption_attribution_description: English: Captive bred Peromyscus maniculatus (Deer Mouse). Originally published at RodentFancy.com
context_page_description: The 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak was an outbreak of hantavirus that caused the first known human cases of hantavirus disease in the United States. It occurred within the Four Corners region – the geographic intersection of the U.S. states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona – of the southwestern part of the country in mid-1993. This region is largely occupied by Native American tribal lands, including the Hopi, Ute, Zuni, and Navajo reservations, from which many of the cases were reported.
  The virus killed 13 people — half of those it infected, for a mortality rate of 50%.
  The cause of the outbreak was found to be a previously unknown species of hantavirus, which was responsible for a new form of illness known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or HPS. The virus is carried by deer mice. Originally referred to as "Four Corners virus", "Muerto Canyon virus", and "Convict Creek virus", it was later named Sin Nombre virus. Transmission to humans was found to have occurred through contact with aerosolized deer mice droppings in enclosed spaces in and around the homes of the victims.
context_section_description: News outlets began reporting on the story of a mystery illness causing deaths among young Navajo, often using the term "Navajo Flu". Hearing a news report, a physician notified health officials to say that the illness sounded a lot like hantavirus, which he had observed in Korea in the 1950s.
  The Centers for Disease Control tested for hantavirus even though Asia and Europe were the only documented places hantavirus had been known to occur. No known cases had ever been reported in the United States. In addition, all the cases in Asia and Europe had involved hantaviruses that caused kidney failure, never respiratory failure. The testing revealed a previously unknown hantavirus which was eventually named Sin Nombre virus, Spanish for "No Name" virus. The disease became formally known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) or simply hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).
  Several theories were advanced to explain the emergence of the new virus. These included increased contact between humans and mice due to a "bumper crop" in the deer mouse population. Another theory was that something within the virus had changed, allowing it to jump to humans. A third theory was that nothing had changed, that hantavirus cases had in fact occurred previously but had not been properly diagnosed. This last theory turned out to be the correct one when it was discovered that the first known case had actually occurred in a 38-year-old Utah man in 1959.
  Like the Korean virus, Sin Nombre virus does not spread person-to-person. Instead, transmission occurs when humans are exposed to air contaminated with aerosolized mouse feces, usually within enclosed spaces. All of the Four Corners victims were found to have significant infestations of deer mice in and around their homes.
caption: The 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak in humans was traced to exposure to deer mouse droppings
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