American who survived hantavirus in 1993 outbreak describes her symptoms and recovery
A woman who survived hantavirus in an outbreak decades ago is speaking out about her experience as 18 Americans remain in quarantine and isolation after being evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship.
Shaina Montiel, 38, said she contracted hantavirus, a virus that can cause serious illness and death, in 1993, when she was just 5-years-old.
"The abdominal pain," Montiel said of what she remembers most about hantavirus in an interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday on "Good Morning America." "I remember that hurting bad to the point where I was just having to throw up because it hurt so bad."
Montiel contracted the virus during an outbreak in the Four Corners region of the United States, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.
At least 18 people contracted hantavirus during the outbreak, and more than a dozen people died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It wasn't until the Four Corners outbreak in 1993 that surveillance for hantavirus in the U.S. began. Between 1993 and the end of 2023, 890 cases of hantavirus disease have been reported in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Montiel said at the time she was diagnosed, there was much still unknown about hantavirus.
"My mom, she was very panicked, very worried, very stressed," she said. "There was just a lot of unknown answers, and knowing what I went through and how awful it was, like I would not wish that upon anybody."
Montiel is sharing her experience as the total number of confirmed and probable cases of hantavirus onboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has risen to 11, including two people confirmed to have died from the virus and one person who remains suspected to have died from the virus.
Passengers disembarked the cruise ship in Spain's Canary Islands over the weekend and were transferred to charter flights back to their home countries.
On Monday, 16 American cruise ship passengers arrived at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, including one person who tested positive for hantavirus. Two other American cruise ship passengers were flown to Atlanta for "further assessment and care," officials said.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said on Tuesday that despite the current cases, “there is no sign that we're seeing the start of a larger outbreak.”
Hantaviruses are usually spread through rodents, including rats and mice, mostly from exposure to urine, droppings or saliva. Although the viruses can spread through a rodent bite or scratch, such infection is rare, according to the CDC.
Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus is rare and only suspected for the Andes strain, which is the variant confirmed on the Hondius cruise ship.
Symptoms of hantavirus typically appear one to eight weeks after contact with the virus and may include fever, fatigue and muscle aches, according to the CDC.
