A mother and son were reported to have died from a rat-borne disease with a high casualty rate, Daily Mail reports.
Scans of the victims, who weren't publicly identified but said to be Native Americans living on a reservation in Arizona, showed that their lungs had "suspiciously" resembled victims of Hantavirus, which was confirmed after samples were sent to and tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July. The mother reportedly suffered a fever, coughed up blood and had experienced shallow breathing before succumbing to the disease, while the son was reported to have suffered a fever three days before vomiting and collapsing hours before his death.
Hantavirus is a disease in which people can be infected by touching surfaces contaminated with rodent feces before touching their mouth or nose and is reported to kill one in three infected humans. Patients typically suffer fever, sore muscles, headaches, nausea and fatigue about one to eight weeks after initially being infected by the disease.
Progressing symptoms, such as shortness of breath and feeling compared to a "tight band around the chest and a pillow over the face" are common four to 10 days after the initial symptoms occur. About 800 Americans are reported to be infected by the disease annually, including 300 casualties, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.