Second Person Dies In State As Result Of Deadly Hantavirus

OLYMPIA - A second person has died in Washington from a deadly virus carried by deer mice, the state Department of Health said today.

But in neither case does the state believe the hantavirus was contracted in Washington, said Dr. John Kobayashi, state epidemiologist.

The second person to die was a resident of Washington. The first was an Arizona woman traveling through Washington last year, he said.

In the second case, John Francisco Machado, 35, a resident of Randle, Lewis County, died July 26 at St. Peters Hospital in Olympia. Health authorities believe the mill worker caught the virus during a multi-state camping trip.

Authorities still don't know where Machado acquired the disease. He camped with his 10-year-old son and a friend of his son in Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming and possibly Colorado between July 1 and July 15, health officials said.

Kobayashi said he expects that somebody eventually will contract the hantaviral pulmonary syndrome from deer mice in Washington. Washington is the only Western state that hasn't had a case acquired within the state, he said.

In May, the state Department of Health said two of 40 rodents tested in Eastern Washington were found to carry the virus. They declined to specify where the infected rodents were trapped.

So far, the hantaviral illness has struck about 80 people and killed 45 in the United States since an outbreak in the spring of 1993.

Hantavirus is spread to humans through contact with rodent droppings or habitat. The virus, carried by rodents like deer mice, is found in every Washington county and each state west of the Rocky Mountains.

The state Department of Health recommends that campers:

-- Make sure cabins and other enclosed structures are clean and disinfected.

-- Do not sleep on bare ground, particularly if rodent burrows or droppings are nearby.

-- Keep food in sealed containers and discard all garbage that may attract rodents.