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womanofthehills

(11,019 posts)
15. A college student died of Hanta Virus in the next town from me 10 yrs ago
Sun May 10, 2026, 01:18 PM
16 hrs ago

I don’t even think it made national news. 20 year old Shawnee Romero. Her mother was the teller at our small town rural bank and could often been seen at our small rural cemetery lying on Shawnees’s grave for hrs.

“ She died on June 9, 2016, from Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) after exposure while working at the Manzano Mountain Retreat and Apple Ranch (sometimes referred to simply as Apple Ranch). Her job involved cleaning cabins that had accumulated large amounts of rodent droppings and urine, particularly from deer mice (the primary carrier of Sin Nombre virus, the main hantavirus strain in the U.S. Southwest). pressreader.com
Key Details
• Exposure: She disturbed dried rodent droppings (likely by sweeping or cleaning without proper precautions like wetting them down with disinfectant or using a respirator). This can aerosolize the virus particles, allowing inhalation. No specific personal protective equipment like a respirator was reportedly provided. ”

(There was a lawsuit as the out of state owners never offered Shawnee a respirator or disinfected the cabins before having her clean. Local gossip is that other kids working with her quit when saw what they were tasked to do or the number of kids effected would have been higher)

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