After experiencing symptoms similar to COVID-19, a Colorado woman was sure she had contracted the novel virus. As it turns out, she wound up being diagnosed with another potentially life-threatening illness.
Sue Ryan started feeling ill after returning from a hiking trip. In October, she came down with a high fever and headaches and decided to get a COVID test. Shortly after getting a negative result, her symptoms worsened.
“I had low oxygen. I went to the hospital, assumed I had COVID, again … negative,” Ryan told FOX affiliate KDVR.
She returned to the hospital a second time and underwent testing for various flu strains and had imaging screens of her lungs.
“I had weird, non-COVID-like CT scans — fluid around my lungs, fluid around my heart, and fluid between the cells in my lungs. All very ominous, but baffling because there was no apparent reason for those findings,” she added.
A pulmonologist was consulted and Ryan was diagnosed with hantavirus, a rare and often fatal disease.
According to the Mayo Clinic, hantavirus can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is an infectious disease “characterized by flu-like symptoms that can progress rapidly to potentially life-threatening breathing problems.”
The most common hantavirus symptoms are high fever and body aches, but may also include headaches, dizziness, chills, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, per the CDC.
Although extremely rare, humans can contract hantavirus by breathing in air that has been infected via deer mice droppings or fluids.
While it’s unclear how she contracted it, Ryan, who is expected to recover completely in the coming weeks, hopes her experience will serve as a warning for others.
“It may not be COVID,” she shared. “If you have been around mice, let your doctor know about that event.”
“I’m very grateful to our doctors and medical system for figuring this out,” Ryan added. “I feel lucky to be on the green side. That’s what I feel.”
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