近距离内射合集

Dion鈥檚 Pizza never tasted so good.

At least that鈥檚 how Mark Fratrick felt after a week without food and just a sip of fluids inside University of New Mexico鈥檚 Critical Care unit, having just narrowly survived one of the world鈥檚 deadliest viruses.

Fratrick鈥檚 first bite of the slice his brother brought him in the ICU was so overwhelming, tears ran down his sunken cheeks and his legs quivered in the hospital bed.

After days with a searing fever, splitting headache and teetering oxygen levels, a nurse had come to tell him the news he had a less than 50% chance of hearing: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e on the downhill now.鈥�

It was August 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while the world was gripped by fear of a novel coronavirus, CDC data indicates Fratrick was one of 17 Americans that year to become infected with a pathogen far deadlier and also little understood: hantavirus.

Cruise ship outbreak

The Sin Nombre species of hantavirus is endemic to the American West and well known in New Mexico, which sees more infections from that strain each year than any other state, with an average of five to seven annually, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

Carried by rodents and other small animals, hantavirus can be transmitted when infected animals鈥� urine, feces or saliva are ingested or inhaled, such as when they dry out and become airbone.

Fratrick had been cleaning out an old shed and a van he was planning to sell at his home in Taos several weeks before he was hospitalized, and it was in the course those prosaic tasks 鈥� performed by countless other New Mexicans each year 鈥� that researchers believe he inhaled one or more Sin Nombre particles.

But reports that a rare, communicable species of the virus had spread aboard an Atlantic cruise ship last month, killing three passengers, has raised global alarm on the heels of the pandemic, which the World Health Organization declared over three years ago this month.

Investigators identified the variant that circulated aboard the 170-person MV Hondius last month as the Andes virus, the only form of hantavirus known to spread from person to person.

One or more passengers are believed to have contracted the virus at the ship鈥檚 port of departure in Ushuaia, Argentina, near the southern tip of South America,

As of early last week, the outbreak had been linked to a cluster of up to 11 infections, with 18 Americans under a 42-day quarantine after returning to the U.S. Last Thursday, the CDC announced 16 more people, also Americans, were also being monitored for symptoms.

Health officials say the new cohort wasn鈥檛 aboard the ship but had instead flown on a plane to Johannesburg with a Dutch woman who died after collapsing from a suspected case of Andes virus tied to the MV Hondius, which flew a Dutch flag, on April 26.

The woman鈥檚 husband was the first to die of the virus as the ship cruised the South Atlantic before diverting to the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife on May 10, where passengers were evacuated early last week.

As of Friday, the total number of Americans being monitored under quarantine in the U.S. stood at 41, generating concern of a similar COVID-style outbreak.

Same genus, many species

Health officials rapidly deployed messaging to quell those fears, however, emphasizing that Andes hantavirus is the only form with documented person-to-person spread.

鈥淎ndes virus, found in South America, is a currently known hantavirus for which limited human鈥憈o鈥慼uman transmission among contacts has been documented,鈥� reads a fact sheet on the WHO website.

There are 36 recognized species of hantaviruses worldwide, about half of which are known to infect humans, according to the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases.

Like most forms of hantavirus, Andes is most often transmitted from feces, urine and saliva from rodents, according to the CDC, and can transfer from an infected person to a healthy individual through 鈥渄irect physical contact, prolonged time spent in close or enclosed spaces, and exposure to the sick person鈥檚 body fluids.鈥�

However, the CDC and World Health Organization said this week that Andes virus is still difficult to transmit from one person to another, having found a perfect reservoir for spread aboard the MV Hondius.

Disease has been a notable danger aboard seafaring vessels since the time of early human explorers. The outbreak of COVID-19 aboard the 3,700-passenger Diamond Princess in February 2020 is another recent example of how the close-quarters, prolonged travel innate to ocean voyages can create idea conditions for disease to spread, even in modern times.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Fox 近距离内射合集 in an interview that person-to-person Andes virus transmission requires 鈥渃lose contact,鈥� but a May 14 New York Times investigation found that the virus can sometimes spread without direct contact.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to be honest scientifically and communicate that, because otherwise you lose credibility,鈥� Steven Bradfute, a viral immunologist and hantavirus expert at UNM, told the Times.

The New Mexico Department of Health this week also distinguished Andes virus from the Sin Nombres species found in the Four Corners region. In a press release on Wednesday, the agency said that the southwestern variant 鈥渃annot spread from person to person.鈥�

While speaking speaking to the Journal this week, New Mexico State Public Health Veterinarian Erin Phipps confirmed that no cases of human-to-human Sin Nombre virus transmission have been documented by the state since the U.S. began monitoring hantavirus in the 1990s.

However, she clarified that current research cannot categorically preclude the possibility that the species could evolve to obtain the characteristic at some point in the future.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a fair question with the perspective that we all have in this post-COVID world,鈥� Phipps said.

Since hantavirus produces respiratory symptoms, she added, physicians are always advised to exercise caution.

Unlike 鈥渙ld world鈥� hantavirus species prevalent among rodents in Asia, Europe and Africa, 鈥渘ew world鈥� variants found throughout the Americas are much more dangerous, causing lungs to fill with fluid, resulting in severe respiratory failure or shock.

鈥淭he primary organ involved is the lungs, so it can cause very severe respiratory symptoms,鈥� Phipps said, explaining that symptoms can take several weeks to develop.

In its later stages, however, hantavirus becomes unmistakable compared to a common cold or flu virus 鈥� causing blood pressure to drop, internal bleeding and kidney failure, sometimes resulting in death.

The overall mortality rate for hantavirus infections can range beyond 50% in some cases, such as during the 1993 Four Corners outbreak, when Sin Nombre virus infected 33 people, 17 of whom died.

The Colorado Department of Health reported on Monday that a Douglas County, Colorado, man died over the weekend from a suspected rodent-borne case of hantavirus, which tends to be

Warning signs

In the days after Fratrick finished cleaning out his shed and vehicle, he thought he was coming down with the flu. Later, he suspected he might have caught COVID.

A pediatric hospitalist he was dating at the time, Tina Petersen, monitored him at home as his symptoms gradually worsened. Even though Fratrick had worn an N95 respirator mask during his cleaning project several weeks prior, Petersen knew hantavirus was a possibility as Fratrick鈥檚 body aches, fever and headache intensified.

She insisted he see a doctor.

Fratrick went to an urgent care center in Taos, where he learned that his blood saturation level had dropped to 82% 鈥� well below normal rates,

From there, he went to Holy Cross, where he tested negative for coronavirus and was transferred by helicopter to UNM at the behest of his sister, Michelle Fratrick.

She had worked at UNM in the 1990s, and could recall the influx of patients from the Four Corners outbreak, which prompted the state to begin investigating the virus.

Cases are recorded nearly every year in New Mexico, with 142 hantavirus pulmonary syndrome cases and 55 deaths between 1975 and 2025, according to the Department of Health.

Searching for a vaccine

Every August since his recovery, Fratrick has welcomed Bradfute and other researchers from the UNM Health Sciences Center to his property in Taos to capture one of hantavirus鈥� most common carriers: the western deer mouse.

In 2025, the UNM lab published a paper that found hantavirus in roughly a quarter of rodents researchers have collected throughout the state.

鈥淚 started my lab in 2013, and because New Mexico has more cases than any other state we鈥檝e really been involved in studying hantaviruses,鈥� Bradfute said.

UNM鈥檚 main goal is developing better treatments for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which currently has none. One day, researchers hope to develop a vaccine.

Questions surrounding progress toward a hantavirus inoculation have swirled in the wake of the deadly cruise ship outbreak.

While none are yet widely available, early testing is underway for preclinical vaccines at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the University of Texas Medical Branch and Korea University, which is working on an mRNA-based solution.

Bradfute echoed the Department of Health, reiterating that there have been 鈥渘o documented cases of person-to-person spread鈥� from any form of hantavirus other than the Andes variant, but he said more research is needed to understand what sets that variant apart from other species, like Sin Nombre.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know why we see it with Andes virus but not with Sin Nombre,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can say that there鈥檚 been some nice work done by some other groups, where they have found Andes virus in oral fluids of infected people. So that鈥檚 an area of research 鈥� does this exist for other hantaviruses or not, and to what extent?鈥�

鈥楽econd life鈥�

Doctors told Fratrick it would take him about two years to fully recover from hantavirus, but he almost immediately started putting his body to the test.

A few months after he left UNM Hospital, he hiked with a set of skis over his shoulder up the 12,000-foot ridge above Taos Ski Valley. His could feel his lungs straining to absorb enough oxygen in the high-mountain air.

But six years later, Fratrick, now 63, says he has no lingering health issues, save for a set of antibodies relatively rare among humans; since the U.S. began investigating hantavirus following the deadly Four Corners outbreak in 1993, only 890 cases have been reported nationwide, according to the CDC.

Fratrick spends every Christmas with his sister in Albuquerque making their favorite Italian dumplings, but he always freezes a handful for his own private ritual come August, when he savors a few in celebration of a life he strives to never take for granted.

鈥淚 try to tell people that I feel like this is my second life,鈥� he said 鈥淓ven today, I think food tastes better, colors are more vivid, or maybe I just appreciate that stuff that much more. I don鈥檛 know, I definitely appreciate being alive and having a second chance and everything.鈥�

John Miller is the 近距离内射合集鈥檚 northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.