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A 27-year-old woman presented to a hospital with symptoms resembling pyelonephritis; respiratory distress did not develop until nearly a day after admission and she subsequently died. The Unexplained Deaths and Critical Illnesses Project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Sin Nombre virus infection by the results of serological testing and sequencing of the viral genome; staining of Sin Nombre virus antigen in the pulmonary capillaries was relatively weak.

Black Creek Canal (BCC) virus is a hantavirus associated with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in southeastern North America. The virus was isolated from the spleen of a cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) trapped in southern Florida. Our previous studies have shown that we could consistently infect male cotton rats with BCC virus in the laboratory. These animals became persistently infected and virus could be detected in salivary glands, urine, and feces. In this report we show: (1) female and male cotton rats are equally susceptible to BCC virus infection, (2) susceptibility to infection was not influenced by age, (3) all inoculated rats transmitted the infection to uninoculated cage mates, and (4) offspring of infected rats became infected despite the presence of high maternal antibodies. The course of BCC virus infection, as determined by antibody response and the ability to isolate or detect virus, appeared to be similar regardless of whether the rats obtained their infection by inoculation or contact with inoculated rats. J. Med. Virol. 60:70-76, 2000. Published 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

An outbreak of 25 cases of Andes virus-associated hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) was recognized in southern Chile from July 1997 through January 1998. In addition to the HPS patients, three persons with mild hantaviral disease and one person with asymptomatic acute infection were identified. Epidemiologic studies suggested person-to-person transmission in two of three family clusters. Ecologic studies showed very high densities of several species of sigmodontine rodents in the area.