Hantavirus Outbreak in Four Corners Region, 1993

More than 30 years ago, in the Four Corners region of the US, an Old-World pathogen was discovered in the New World 5:02 PM CDT on May 6, 2026 Share on X (formerly Twitter) As a cruise ship holding nearly 150 people and serving as the scene of a deadly outbreak of hantavirus floats in limbo off the coast of Africa, global headlines keep constant tabs on the situation. The World Health Organization has confirmed that three passengers died after infection with the Andes strain of the virus, which is known to circulate in Argentina, the South American country from which the MV Hondius set sail. Until 1993, hantavirus was only known to spread in Asia and Europe. But in May of that year a young Navajo couple who lived near the Navajo reservation outside Gallup, New Mexico, died of a mysterious respiratory illness, the cause of which investigators eventually identified as a hantavirus. It was the first time scientists had identified a hantavirus infection in the Western Hemisphere. And the clinical presentation of the viral infection was drastically different from the disease caused by viruses in the same genus (Orthohantavirus) in the Eastern Hemisphere. The newly described hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) had killed that young couple, and more cases emerged from the Four Corners region as public health researchers tracked the outbreak. Eventually, investigators confirmed 33 cases of infection in Four Corners states (Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico) with a hantavirus strain that virologists first named the Muerto Canyon hantavirus, then the Four Corners virus and, after objections from local residents, came to be known as the Sin Nombre virus (SNV). More than 50 percent of those infected people died from HPS. You've run out of free articles. Read unlimited, ad-free stories (including this one) by becoming a Member.