Hantavirus top suspect in visitor’s mystery death

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:08 a.m.

Nevada and Clark County health officials say they may never know what caused the death of a California journalist who was hospitalized after attending the Comdex computer show.

Health officials said an autopsy showed that Gerald Hewett, 68, of Inyokern, a reviewer for the Vancouver, British Columbia, publication Computerist Magazine, died Monday of adult respiratory distress syndrome.

Hewett was admitted Nov. 20 to Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, suffering from nausea, diarrhea, dehydration and high fever.

Chief Health Officer Donald Kwalick said that, based on Hewett's sudden death Monday, a disease such as hantavirus is suspected. "Hantavirus jumps to the top of the list," Kwalick said, "but we may never find out what caused his death."

Hewett and his half-brother and colleague, Rlee Peters, who also attended Comdex, are from a high-desert area in Northern California where deer mice -- the suspected carrier of hantavirus -- thrive, Kwalick said. Hantavirus takes from one to six weeks to develop in the systems of affected people.

Peters, 67, suffered similar symptoms and was hospitalized at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital in California after returning home from Las Vegas on Nov. 18. He was released in good condition on Tuesday.

Peters said he believed he got food poisoning while in Las Vegas attending Comdex, the world's largest computer show. Comdex began on Nov. 15 and ended Nov. 20. Peters, Hewett and another journalist, Judith Rogow, stayed at the Gold Strike Inn in Jean, 25 miles southwest of Las Vegas, and the two men shared a room. Rogow did not get sick. The trio ate at several major Strip resorts.

No one reported food poisoning to the Clark County Health District during the Comdex convention, Kwalick said. "We have no reports of any outbreaks of disease (food poisoning)," he said.

To determine whether Hewett suffered from hantavirus, the University of Nevada School of Medicine laboratory in Reno started analyzing his blood, and results are not expected until next week, state health officer Randall Todd said.

In addition to hantavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is conducting extensive tests for thousands of viruses that may have caused Hewett's illness and death, Todd said.

"Most people are unaware of it, but the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome often starts with abdominal symptoms, such as nausea, diarrhea and vomiting," Todd said. "Most food-borne illnesses do not progress to adult respiratory distress syndrome."

There have been 10 hantavirus cases reported in Nevada so far since 1993, with two deaths, Todd said.

Since 1993 there have been major outbreaks of hantavirus in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, with a death rate of 34 percent. The death rate rises to 45 percent when earlier cases identified later from patients' blood and tissue samples are added.

Nationwide 19 cases of hantavirus have been reported this year. If Hewett had hantavirus, the case would be reported as originating in California.

Last year only two cases of hantavirus occurred in California. Experts have identified a total of 16 cases dating back to 1980. The virus is spread through the droppings and urine of deer mice, typically appearing with flu-like symptoms such as fever, aches and pains followed by respiratory failure and death.