If it’s a rodent virus, the House and Senate — and the media — must be lousy with it. First time I’d ever heard of it was in the 1990s, the first time watching the first X-Files movie.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/hantavirus/index
The Hantavirus was around 1993. People were in such a panic that there were mass-cancelations of reservations in the Southwest U.S.
Having read the description of what put you at risk (you practically had to mainline rodent droppings), I realized countless people were panicking for nothing. Since my parents & I were headed to the SW that Summer, we picked up a lot of last-minute reservations (including at Mesa Verde). A nice trip and nobody got sick.