“testing showed HV antibodies indicating past exposure.”
wow, you’re double-lucky:
1. you didn’t die
2. you should have some level of future immunity
It’s a two tier test - the first as I said is for HV antibodies, the second is current and specific to the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). I had the first but not the second and, if the second was positive, those results are reported to the CDC. The test can not be used to diagnose hantavirus early on as the results take two weeks to be reported and waiting that long for treatment would mean the patient likely already died. In my case, blood samples were taken at the local hospital in New Mexico and again at the hospital in Lubbock. Both had the same result.
People with hantavirus infections can initially feel flu-like symptoms for roughly three to six days and then start to have fluid in and around their lungs. So physicians immediately need to begin treatment if a patient has the symptoms and could have been exposed.
In the case of Betsy Arakawa, Gene Hackman’s wife, she consulted a private physician the morning of February 12 for flu-like symptoms and set up an appointment for that afternoon. She never made the visit and, based on being found on the bathroom floor with an open Tylenol bottle, likely died later that day.