reported Texas cases<\/a> over the years have largely been connected to rural parts of the state where people may come into contact with rodents, barns, sheds, grain storage areas or cabins.<\/p>\nKnown reported areas include:<\/p>\n
Swisher County in the Texas Panhandle (2014) <\/p>\n
Eastern Texas, linked to an investigated fatal illness in 1993 <\/p>\n
Other sporadic cases believed to have occurred in rural West Texas and Panhandle regions over the years <\/p>\n
What exactly is hantavirus?<\/p>\n
Hantavirus is a rare virus primarily spread through contact with infected rodents, especially through urine, droppings or saliva that become airborne when disturbed. <\/p>\n
Early symptoms often resemble the flu and can include:<\/p>\n
Fever <\/p>\n
Fatigue <\/p>\n
Muscle aches <\/p>\n
Headaches <\/p>\n
Nausea <\/p>\n
In severe cases, the illness can progress into hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a dangerous respiratory disease that can become life-threatening. The CDC says the fatality rate for severe hantavirus infections is roughly 38%. <\/p>\n
Should Texans be worried?<\/p>\n
Health experts say hantavirus remains very rare, and unlike COVID-19, most strains found in the United States do not easily spread from person to person. <\/p>\n
The CDC says the biggest risk comes from exposure to infected rodents or contaminated areas, particularly when cleaning enclosed spaces where rodent droppings may be present. <\/p>\n
Officials recommend Texans avoid sweeping or vacuuming rodent droppings directly, and instead use disinfectants and protective gear when cleaning potentially contaminated spaces.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Recent headlines surrounding a suspected hantavirus outbreak tied to an international cruise ship have renewed public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104187,104185,584,223,104188,27,29,104186,28,1481],"class_list":["post-282933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-cdc-hantavirus-data","tag-hantavirus-symptoms","tag-health","tag-news","tag-rodent-exposure-risks","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-health-records","tag-texas-news","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}