Debbie Zipperian still vividly remembers the putrid smell of rodent excrement and urine in the shed at the back of her ranch.
A former cowgirl who grew up in rural Montana, she was well versed in the unglamorous side of farm life, so didn’t pay much attention at the time.
But around a week later, the then 46-year-old became uncharacteristically tired. She felt confused and then, ordinary day-to-day chores like feeding the horses became an impossible challenge.
Pain erupted in her back and shoulders. She could no longer tolerate sound or sunlight. Then came uncontrollable behaviors.
When the sickness first started in 2011, her family initially thought she had a bad case of the flu. But, to their horror, she kept deteriorating – and would eventually be airlifted to the hospital for care.
It was there that doctors made a frightening discovery: She had been infected with hantavirus, a rare rat-borne disease.
This is the same terrifying disease that has caused an outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship this week, which is suspected to have killed three and sickened at least eight people.
The almost 150 people left on board the M/V Hondius – which is currently steaming from Cape Verde in Africa to the Canary Islands – are currently following strict hygiene and isolation measures lest they are also infected.
Debbie Zipperian, from Montana, survived Hantavirus after being diagnosed with the disease aged 46. The former cowgirl told the Daily Mail how it upended her life
Zipperian was infected with the same virus that has been linked to an outbreak on a cruise ship. Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple who died had contracted Hantavirus during a bird-watching outing at a garbage dump in Ushuaia, Argentina. Above, a rubbish site in the city (file photo)
Spain’s Canary Islands expressed opposition to allowing the cruise to dock on the archipelago, fearing a possible outbreak in the community
But concerns have been raised over the scores of passengers that disembarked on the South Atlantic island of St Helena to return home, who may have contracted the virus and spread it around the world.
The World Health Organization has warned that the virus may have spread between passengers on the ship, in what is a rare occurrence for the disease. The CDC has also published a health alert.
In Debbie’s case, doctors surmised that she must have become infected after inhaling hantavirus-contaminated feces while cleaning out her shed in Clancy, Montana.
She told them how, at times, her face had been practically right next to mouse droppings while she cleaned out the outbuilding where she was feeding a stray cat.
In the current outbreak, experts fear passengers may have been infected after going on a bird-watching outing to a garbage dump in Ushuaia, Argentina, before boarding the vessel. Humans can become infected by inhaling air laced with dust from contaminated rodent droppings.
Hantavirus is rare in the US, with only around 1,000 cases recorded between 1993 and 2023 – the equivalent of about 30 a year. Most are reported in rural parts of the country.
Early symptoms include a fever, headache and muscle pains, which means it can be easily confused with the flu before more serious warning signs appear, according to the CDC.
Debbie, now 60, says this is exactly what it was like for her.
At the time, she lived on the ranch with her husband Ken and her in-laws.
They had all thought she had flu when the symptoms first came on, but she was convinced it was something more serious.
Doctors surmised that Debbie must have inhaled hantavirus-contaminated feces while cleaning out her shed in Clancy, Montana
When the pain began in her back and shoulders a few days later she drove to her chiropractor, who swiftly sent her to the ER where she got a spinal tap before being discharged.
Then everything becomes a blur. She knows she was taken to the hospital again by her family but cannot remember what happened.
Soon after, she went back a third time after she had a ‘manic episode’.
She says: ‘I was told I was pretty crazy, out of control. I couldn’t stand sounds, I had blankets over my hands, I was freaking out at things, and my husband took me to the hospital that night.’
She was later told that while at the hospital she started to behave ‘like a bobcat’ and that nurses had to to use straps to tie her to the bed.
She also recalls hallucinating and imagining at times that the room was on fire or that she was in an underground Russian laboratory.
The virus had caused widespread inflammation throughout her body, affecting her brain. Her heart stopped twice and she had to be resuscitated.
She was eventually flown by helicopter to a bigger hospital in Montana, where she was intubated, placed on a ventilator and put into a week-long coma to allow her body to recover.
The mother-of-three says she survived the virus because she kept battling to see her children. She is pictured above holding a grandchild
While fighting back tears at the memory, Debbie says: ‘If nobody had been at the ranch, I probably would have died from this.’
There are no specific drugs available to treat Hantavirus, so doctors typically leave it to take its course.
Although, some medical experts now prescribe the antiviral medication ribavirin – which is used to treat hepatitis C – after studies showed it could be effective against some strains of the disease.
Debbie says she was so delirious she can’t remember most of what happened during her treatment.
But she is thankful to have survived when so many others do not.
Scientists estimate that between 38 and 50 percent of Hantavirus patients succumb to the disease, but the CDC has not reported a figure for the total number of deaths.
When the infection had cleared, it took Debbie about a year to learn to walk and talk again. She describes an agonizing period in rehab where she struggled to complete simple tasks such as standing up without help.
Even now, 15 years on, she still suffers from lingering symptoms including neuropathy – pain in the nerves – that she describes as ‘unimaginable’.
She has also been left with a brain injury that causes her day-to-day difficulties, and says she will start throwing up if she tries to do the vacuuming and sweeping on the same day.
Her husband died from cancer two years after she fell ill. And after being forced to give up her horses, she now lives with her sister in Trina in the Clancy area.
The mother-of-three says she believes she survived the virus because she kept battling to see her children.
In the hope of raising more awareness and preventing others from suffering the same fate, she warns: ‘It just takes one mouse and it doesn’t have to be a whole bunch of mouse [feces], it can just be one.
‘If you even see mouse [feces], don’t go near it, spray it with bleach.’
