Highlights
Learn about the history of hantavirus disease in the U.S. and when CDC started conducting surveillance or tracking the numbers of people who got sick from the disease. Find out where it is more commonly found in the U.S. and what communities have felt the biggest impacts.
Hantavirus infection in the U.S.
Hantavirus disease surveillance in the United States began in 1993 during an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in the Four Corners region – the area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) became a nationally notifiable disease in 1995 and is now reported through the Nationally Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS) when fever is present in a patient with laboratory-confirmed evidence of hantavirus infection.
In 2014, the Council of State & Territorial Epidemiologists expanded national reporting of laboratory-confirmed hantavirus infections to include both HPS and non-pulmonary hantavirus infections, which present with non-specific viral symptoms like fever, chills, headache, and fatigue, but no cardio-pulmonary symptoms. Reporting of non-pulmonary hantavirus cases began in 2015.
Reported cases of hantavirus disease in the U.S.
As of the end of 2023, 890 cases of hantavirus disease were reported in the United States since surveillance began in 1993. These were all laboratory-confirmed cases and included HPS and non-pulmonary hantavirus infection.
The map below shows the distribution by state of hantavirus cases in the United States from 1993 through 2023.
Data is reported by state only. In order to protect the identities of people who get hantavirus, county-level data cannot be provided. Contact your local or state health department for information about hantavirus disease cases in your area.
Hantavirus disease data in the U.S.
The following table is based on the national surveillance data reported to CDC’s Viral Special Pathogens Branch and collected by the NNDSS.
Table 1. Hantavirus Disease* Characteristics in the United States
| Characteristic | Number/Percentage |
|---|---|
| Cases of hantavirus infection (as of December 2020) | 890 cases |
| HPS cases | 859 cases |
| Non-pulmonary hantavirus infection | 31 cases |
| Sex of confirmed case patients | 62% Male 38% Female |
| Race of confirmed case patients | 75% White 19% American Indian/Alaska Native 1% Black or African American <1% Asian <1% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander 6% Unknown |
| Ethnicity of confirmed case patients | 14% Hispanic/Latino 66% Not Hispanic/Latino 20% Unknown |
| Median age of confirmed case patients | 38 years (range 5 to 88 years) |
| Mean age of confirmed case patients | 39 years (range 5 to 88 years) |
| Cases of hantavirus infection resulting in death | 35% |
| Cases occurring west of the Mississippi River | 94% |
* Hantavirus disease includes HPS and non-pulmonary hantavirus infection
1Prior to changing the case definition in 2015, data was not systematically collected and reported for non-pulmonary hantavirus infection.
