Hantavirus Disease, otherwise known as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) manifests as flu-like symptoms which rapidly progresses into shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, internal bleeding, respiratory failure, and death. Hantaviruses (HTV) are distantly related to the ebola virus and have been recognized as causes of disease in China and Asia for many years. They first came to the attention of health authorities in the United States in 1993 when several healthy young adults developed flu-like symptoms and more than half of them died. HTV is carried by rodents and transmitted to humans through urine, feces, and dust contaminated with feces of infected rodents. While HPS is rare--only 110 cases have been reported in the U.S. since 1993--there is no effective treatment.

On May 1993, several people became ill and five died of an "unexplained illness" on an Indian Reservation in "Four Corners" in the southwest United States, an area...