Wendy Zuckerman

And fluid can start to build up there.

If this happens, your lungs can't bring in enough oxygen, and patients will tell Michelle, Hmm, I'm coughing, or I'm short of breath, I can't catch my breath.

And at this point, things can start to go downhill really fast as your lungs just keep flooding with fluid.

Another thing that can happen here is called cardiogenic shock.

And it's where your heart stops pumping enough blood to get oxygen to your organs.

And even if you seek medical attention, your chance of surviving isn't great.

We don't have medicine specifically for Hantavirus.

Michelle told us that the only thing she can do is really if you catch it early enough, you can put people on oxygen or even something called an ECMO machine.

This is like an artificial lung where doctors take your blood out, put oxygen in it and then pump it all back into your body.

Michelle told us that she'll hook people up to the ECMO basically to buy them some time while the virus runs its course.

Michelle told us what it was like for some of her patients.

She talked to producer Michelle Dang about it.

So that's part of what makes Hunter virus so scary.

It can sneak up on you and you can get sick really fast and even die.

And there's no vaccine to prevent it.

So you, me, we don't want to get a nasty case of Hunter virus.

How do people get infected in the first place?

Now, Hantavirus is actually found all over the world.

We've seen it on every continent except Antarctica.

It's often carried by rodents, but it's also found in animals like bats, moles, and shrews.