ROCKFORD, Illinois (WIFR/Gray News) – Health officials in Illinois are investigating a potential hantavirus case that is not linked to the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said the person has not traveled outside the United States.
The department believes the resident of Winnebago County — northern Illinois — contracted hantavirus while cleaning a house that had rodent droppings.
“Hantaviruses are primarily spread through the urine, droppings, or saliva of rodents. This potential case would have involved direct contact with rodent droppings while cleaning and exhibited symptoms consistent with hantavirus exposure,” said in a statement Sandra Martell, public health administrator for the Winnebago County Health Department.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are conducting additional analyses to confirm the potential positive hantavirus case, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
The individual is recovering from mild symptoms that did not require hospitalization.
Officials believe the person contracted the North American hantavirus variant, which is not transmitted from person to person. This differs from the Andes variant, which infected some passengers on the cruise where the outbreak was detected.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reaffirmed that the risk of contracting hantavirus remains very low.
The testing process to confirm whether the potential hantavirus case is positive can take up to 10 days.
Illinois has had seven positive hantavirus cases since 1993, the state health department said. The most recent case was in March 2025. Since data collection began in 1993, the United States has confirmed 890 cases.
The most common hantavirus variant in the United States is caused by exposure to rodent droppings and is not transmitted person-to-person, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The rodent species known to transmit the Andes variant are not found in the United States.
