Mother and son in Arizona die from RAT-borne virus that kills one in three patients who catch it

A mother and her son from Arizona have died after catching a deadly virus carried by rats.

The mother, who was not named, suffered from a fever, coughed up blood and had rapid, shallow breathing for a week before she succumbed to the illness.

Her son suffered from a fever for just three days before he vomited and collapsed at night. Doctors pronounced him dead the next day.

Tests revealed they had both been infected with Hantavirus, which kills one in three people it infects and is picked up by touching surfaces contaminated with rodent feces.

The mother and her son had been infected with Hantavirus, which is carried by rodents. It was not clear when infection may have occurred

The pair were native Americans who lived on a reservation. 

People can be infected by Hantavirus when they touch surfaces contaminated with rodent feces and then touch the sides of their mouth or nose.

About one to eight weeks after infection, patients usually suffer fever, sore muscles, headaches, nausea and fatigue.

Four to ten days later the disease progresses to shortness of breath and a sensation like a ‘tight band around the chest and a pillow over the face’.

The disease attacks blood vessels in the lungs, causing them to start to leak and fill the lungs with fluid. This can lead to suffocation and death.

Doctors treat the disease using ventilators to ensure patients get enough oxygen and IV drips to ensure they get enough nutrients and remain hydrated. Medications may also be administered to help manage the pain, fever and other symptoms.

About 800 Americans are sickened by the disease every year with 300 fatalities also recorded, according to estimates.

The deaths were revealed in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Both fatalities occurred in March 2020, when Covid was gripping the US.

Scientists said in the report that it was important to keep other diseases in mind during a pandemic.

The mother, who was 25 years old, had lived in a fourplex house — a place big enough to house four families — on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, eastern Arizona. 

She would regularly travel 120 miles to visit her son, who was 11 years old, who lived at a separate family residence.

He had stayed with her during February 2020, the report said, but had returned to the family residence in March. He visited his mother’s house about once a month. 

The mother was reported to have started suffering shortness of breath on March 12, 2020.

She stayed at a casino, however, from March 13 to 17, and also cleaned her apartment on March 18.

But the following day she was rushed to the hospital after also starting to experience abdominal pain and started to cough up blood.

Doctors recorded that she had a fever of 101F (38.3C) and was also suffering rapid and shallow breathing.

They initially thought she was suffering from exposure to cleaning chemicals, but scans showed damage in her lungs that looked ‘suspiciously’ like that from Hantavirus.

She was intubated and transferred to another hospital for further treatment but died the following day, on March 19.

Her son began to feel warm to the touch but did not have a fever on March 18.

Two days later he vomited and then woke up at night because of difficulty breathing before collapsing and becoming unresponsive.

He was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead the following day.

Tests showed that he was positive for Covid, while his mother tested negative for the disease.

Samples were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with tests carried out in July revealing that they both had hantavirus.

The disease can be carried by the deer mouse, which lives in Arizona, as well as the white-footed mouse, and the rice rat and cotton rat.

It can be spread to humans via contact with rodent feces and then their mouths as well as air that has been contaminated with steam from rodent feces.