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What is Hantavirus? The Virus That Killed Gene Hackman's Wife
Variety ^ | Mar 7, 2025 | Josh Copitch

Posted on 03/07/2025 3:48:23 PM PST by nickcarraway

Authorities revealed Friday that actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease and showed severe signs of Alzheimer’s disease a full week after his wife died of hantavirus in their home.

The rare but deadly virus is most commonly spread through breathing in contaminated air. Since the end of 2022, 864 cases of hantavirus disease have were reported in the United States since surveillance began in 1993.

Advertisement Hantaviruses can infect and cause serious diseases in people worldwide, according to the CDC. People get hantavirus from contact with rodents like rats and mice, especially when exposed to their urine, droppings, and saliva. It can also spread through a bite or scratch by a rodent, but this is rare.

The syndrome is a rare lung disease that kills about a third of those infected. Symptoms can include fever, chills, cough, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, muscle aches and fatigue, though it is not communicable from person to person.

In the United States, the carriers of hantavirus are deer mice, cotton rats, rice rats and white-footed mice.

How to Avoid How it's spread: Touching or breathing air particles of urine or droppings from certain types of mice or rats, especially deer mice.

Symptoms: Develop one to six weeks later and can include flulike symptoms that progress into a dry cough, headache, nausea and vomiting, then shortness of breath.

Where it occurs: Anywhere in the U.S.; recent cases were in Yosemite National Park in California.

Prevention: Keep rodents out of your home; carefully clean any nests with disinfectant or bleach and water.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: betsyarakawa; bubonic; genehackman; hackman; hanatvirus; hantavirus; mice; newmexico; santafesummit; virus
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Apparently, there is a Hantavirus vaccine.
1 posted on 03/07/2025 3:48:23 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Hauntavirus come from rodents, how awful she passed away 6 days before he did AND he had Alzheimer’s what a horrible situation!!!


2 posted on 03/07/2025 3:50:36 PM PST by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: nickcarraway

I assume they found droppings around. They weren’t going to do an autopsy on the dog...but maybe they should.


3 posted on 03/07/2025 3:51:53 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Trump Girl Kit Cat

They lived way out in the hills I am quite sure there were many rodents around!! Then to top it all off the poor dogs locked in a closet just a horrible situation!!


4 posted on 03/07/2025 3:52:58 PM PST by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: Trump Girl Kit Cat

My friend in Arizona had mice in his garage, with a lot of droppings, and used a WETVAC to clean it up, and the EXHAUST AIR gave him the virus.....he was ill for weeks!!


5 posted on 03/07/2025 3:53:30 PM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion.....the HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: nickcarraway

You’ll be made to take it.


6 posted on 03/07/2025 3:53:40 PM PST by Jonty30 (I have invented blackened salmon salad by baking it in the oven for too long. )
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To: Sacajaweau

‘ They weren’t going to do an autopsy on the dog...but maybe they should.’

I saw a portion of that press conference and if I remember correctly they said they were.


7 posted on 03/07/2025 3:53:47 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: Sacajaweau

From what I read, it was clear that the dog had died from dehydration. But then again that was a preliminary report.

But again, the whole thing is a terrible tragedy, and I really did like Gene Hackman as an actor


8 posted on 03/07/2025 3:54:41 PM PST by suasponte137
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To: nickcarraway

What about the dog?


9 posted on 03/07/2025 3:55:05 PM PST by Wilderness Conservative (Nature is the ultimate conservative)
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To: nickcarraway
Very sad...Watching a couple of his movies on Tubi...he was indeed a great actor and lived in a time when movies were at their peak.

No more...Hollywood has left the stage.

10 posted on 03/07/2025 3:55:13 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: nickcarraway

There are on average 30 cases of hantavirus in America annually with a 35% death rate. So 10 people die of hantavirus every year out of 350,000,000 and Gene Hackman’s wife was one of them? Strange story.


11 posted on 03/07/2025 3:58:48 PM PST by McCarthysGhost
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To: nickcarraway

Mouse poop in an enclosed area.


12 posted on 03/07/2025 4:04:03 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: nickcarraway

I have a nice heated shop, since winters in Idaho can get a little cool. It’s had a resident mouse killer since day one. Female cats are best because my old tomcat liked to lay around on his lazy butt letting the little girl do the heavy llifting. He’d play ping pong with a mouse occasionally but the little girl walked around putting out murder vibs. Dry, dusty climates like we have with low humidity caused me to pay attention to hantavirus years ago. Mice nest and their mess are nothing to ignore. Cleaning up the nest and droppings requires strong disinfectant, gloves, and proper disposal. The virus may not be there but no one should take chances. IMO


13 posted on 03/07/2025 4:04:13 PM PST by Equine1952
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To: Sacajaweau

Do an autopsy on a dead dog would be a waste of time. It was locked up in the kennel without food and water, and likely died of starvation and dehydration.


14 posted on 03/07/2025 4:05:06 PM PST by wildcard_redneck ( )
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To: Wilderness Conservative

Search on the internet says dogs nor cats get sick from the hauntavirus.


15 posted on 03/07/2025 4:06:26 PM PST by bobonthejob
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To: McCarthysGhost

This whole story still seem unlikely.


16 posted on 03/07/2025 4:07:18 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: McCarthysGhost

It is strange. One would expect her to get help if she was ill. She was a wealthy lady, and hantavirus, although a quickly advancing virus, does not kill in minutes. It’s not cyanide.


17 posted on 03/07/2025 4:12:06 PM PST by BlackVeil ('The past is never dead. It's not even past.' William Faulkner)
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To: nickcarraway

I agree. And I am not impressed that they did not autopsy the dog. Also, Gene Hackman’s friends visited him in January and found him very lively and lucid.


18 posted on 03/07/2025 4:13:32 PM PST by BlackVeil ('The past is never dead. It's not even past.' William Faulkner)
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To: Ann Archy

I used to work in SW New Mexico and sometimes would have to go find things in an old warehouse. All the boxes were covered with dust and mouse droppings, and I used to joke about getting hantavirus, but I never did. These days I’d take it a lot more seriously.


19 posted on 03/07/2025 4:16:38 PM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: nickcarraway

That was huge house.

There could have been a lot of stuff going on with mice in parts of the house they might not have known about.


20 posted on 03/07/2025 4:17:49 PM PST by Biblebelter
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