The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that hantavirus killed a north Idaho teenager, but health officials are still puzzled about where he contracted the disease.
The federal laboratories on Thursday confirmed the conclusion reached 11 days ago by the University of New Mexico's Hantavirus Diagnostic Center - that the virus caused the Oct. 14 death of Dyne Phillip, 14."The CDC confirmation is perplexing and sad," said Jeanne Bock, Panhandle Health District director of physical health. "We're still hopeful Dyne's death was an isolated set of circumstances that came together."
The confirmation did little to broaden health officials' understanding of how Phillip picked up the fatal virus, which emerged from obscurity last spring when it was blamed for several deaths in the Four Corners region of the Southwest, which includes Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.
"We know nothing more than we did a few days ago," said Jan Palmer, a nurse epidemiologist at the Panhandle Health District. "What I want now is absolute confirmation that the disease came from here."
The Atlanta-based CDC will send a team of doctors to Coeur d'Alene in the next few weeks to try to determine the source of Phillip's illness, Palmer said.
Phillip's mother, Janice Geary, said last week her son had not left the area during the virus's 45-day incubation period, leading to speculation that he was infected in the Coeur d'Alene area.
The CDC investigation will include blood tests of Phillip's family members and may also involve tests of others who had close contact with the teen, Palmer said.
A respiratory disease that strikes with terrifying swiftness, the hantavirus so far has sickened at least 50 people in 14 states, killing 30.
The virus is carried by deer mice, common in Idaho and many other states, and is fatal to about half its human victims. It is spread through the blood, urine, feces and saliva of the mice, and is often breathed in by people sweeping deer-mice droppings.
Two other cases of hantavirus have been reported in southern Idaho. Doctors believe one patient became infected in New Mexico and the other in Utah.
Palmer and Bock said people should not be overly alarmed.
"The circumstances of this case are out of the ordinary," Bock said. "The incubation period of this illness is 45 days and we have had no other cases that we know of."
Palmer said Phillip may not have been the first person in north Idaho to die of hantavirus.
"The disease is so classic. Until now, the cause of death has been listed as adult respiratory disease syndrome," she said.
People should attempt to keep deer mice out of their homes by sealing holes in foundations and taking other precautions, Palmer said.
"It's pricey, but it's essential," she said. "This virus is more than 50 percent fatal."