When Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead on the floor in different rooms of their New Mexico home last week, investigators set to work unraveling the mystery of what happened.
On Friday, they said testing determined Arakawa, 65, died from a rare respiratory illness caused by hantavirus, possibly as early as Feb. 11. They said Hackman, 95, succumbed to heart disease and “advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” most likely days or even a week later, on Feb. 18.
The revelation immediately raised questions about what exactly hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is and how people can protect themselves from contracting it. Officials said Friday they believe Arakawa contracted hantavirus from a rodent infestation in a structure somewhere on the couple’s property, but not inside their “well-maintained” home. According to the CDC, people get hantavirus from contact with rodents like rats and mice, especially when exposed to their urine, droppings, and saliva.
“Hanatavirus infection is characterized by flu-like symptoms consisting of fever, muscle aches, cough, sometimes vomiting and diarrhea that can progress to shortness of breath and cardiac or heart failure and lung failure. This occurs after a one to eight-week exposure to excrement from a primarily particular mouse species that carries hantavirus,” Dr. Heather Jarrell, New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, said at a press conference Friday. She said initial flu-like symptoms can last roughly three to six days before they transition to a pulmonary phase where people suffer from fluid in and around their lungs.
“At that point, a person can die very quickly, within 24 to 48 hours, roughly speaking, without medical treatment,” Dr. Jarell said. “It’s not uncommon to find someone down on the floor as part of a terminal collapse, so to speak, and that may very well have been what happened to Mrs. Hackman.” (Officials said Friday that Arakawa visited a CVS pharmacy on Feb. 11, the last day she was known to be alive. They didn’t know if she had reported any symptoms or purchased any related medication.)
“It’s got a fairly high mortality associated with it, especially if it’s not diagnosed,” Dr. Scott Lindquist, lead epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health, tells Rolling Stone. While infections are rare, people need to know what the disease is so they can report possible exposure if they start to feel sick, he said.
“A lot of times we don’t initially think of hantavirus, and people don’t disclose, ‘Hey, I was cleaning out a rodent infestation in the house or the garage.’ So, a lot of times it’s fatal,” Lindquist said. According to Dr. Jarrell, the mortality rate for the hantavirus strain in the Southwest is about 38 to 50 percent.
While there’s no specific treatment for hantavirus, early intervention can save lives. “Really, it’s supportive care – the use of a ventilator, maintaining your blood pressure, having fluids, doing a balance between severe pulmonary involvement and keeping the patient alive,” Lindquist said.
Dr. Erin Phipps, New Mexico’s Public Health Veterinarian, said Friday that while rare, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome remains an ongoing threat to public health. “A small number of human infections are found every year in New Mexico. Over the past five years, New Mexico has confirmed between one and seven hantavirus infections in humans each year,” she said. “We have identified 136 infections over the past 50 years in New Mexico residents, five of these in Santa Fe County. This is a serious disease. 42 percent of these infections here in New Mexico were fatal.”
According to the CDC, 94 percent of reported hantavirus infections in the U.S. have been west of the Mississippi River. As of the end of 2022, 864 cases of hantavirus disease were reported in the U.S. since surveillance began in 1993.
Experts say the best way to prevent an infection is to avoid contact with deer mice and their urine and droppings.
“Whenever there’s a rodent infection, our advice is you really should wear a mask, gloves and clean up with a bleach solution,” Dr. Lindquist says. “Wipe it up with a moist cloth and dispose of it in a bag, and try not to aerosolize it [with a vacuum or sweeping].”
He said it’s also essential to avoid rodent infestations in the first place — that means sealing up spaces where rodents can enter a home or garage and cleaning up any food that’s easily accessible and might attract mice.
“You can safely clean up an infestation,” Dr. Lindquist said. “The point is, don’t just rush in and aerosolize. Don’t get Shop-Vac out. Don’t sweep it and aerosolize it without any protective equipment on.”
From Rolling Stone US
