What Is Hantavirus? Woman Mistakes Rodent-Carrying Virus For Flu

A woman from New Mexico is battling for life after she was recently diagnosed with a rare form of virus which she earlier thought was flu, reports said.

According to a report, the woman, identified as Kiley Lane, was diagnosed with Hantavirus infection on February 5. Lane went to a local hospital in her hometown of Farmington, New Mexico, in early January after she started experiencing nausea and flu-like symptoms. The doctors at the hospital told her that she had a “blockage.” They gave her some medicines and sent her home, her mother Julie Barron told the Fox News.

However, almost a month later, Lane found herself in the ICU of the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) in Albuquerque as her health began to deteriorate. She was put on a ventilator.

"She was getting sicker and sicker and nobody seemed to want to listen. She didn't test positive for pneumonia, the flu, hepatitis — nothing she tested for was coming back,” Barron said.

The doctors carried out various tests on Lane and finally, she was detected with Hantavirus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people can get infected with Hantavirus after coming in contact with rodents or their urine or droppings. As of 2017, around 728 cases of Hantavirus were recorded across 36 states with the majority of them being reported from the states to the west of the Mississippi River.

In Lane’s case, her mother said Lane had planned a trip to Costa Rica with her best friend and everything was normal until she started experiencing health problems.

"A month ago, she was planning a trip to Costa Rica with her best friend ... Now she can't even go to the bathroom by herself. She hasn't seen or talked to her daughter in a month. She can't even watch TV," Barron said.

"This virus starts attacking your body, it damages your organs. The first thing that happened with Kiley is her lungs. They're in real critical shape,” she elaborated.

“It's not like she was digging through a dumpster or around infected rodents. She was doing her normal, everyday routine — sweeping the porch, wiping off a box with a paper towel," Barron said. "Everyone has the impression, 'that's never going to happen to me'.”

She also said she wanted more people to know about this virus and that she hoped to spread as much as knowledge and information about it.

"We can't sit back and let things like this be swept under the carpet. I want people to know about the virus and to keep the name in open communications so that nobody else has to go through this. Not one person,” she explained.

Lane’s family friend, Sherri Hull, set up a YouCaring fundraising page to gather money for Lane’s medical expenses. So far, more than 201 people have come forward and contributed to it. The page managed to raise $27,695 at the time of publishing this story.