Native America Calling: How Indigenous knowledge built the foundation for today’s response to the hantavirus outbreak

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Native America Calling: How Indigenous knowledge built the foundation for today’s response to the hantavirus outbreak

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

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How Indigenous knowledge built the foundation for today’s response to the hantavirus outbreak

New hantavirus infections aboard a cruise ship have thrust the hantavirus into the global spotlight.

Hantavirus infections remain rare, with only about 1,000 cases reported in the U.S. in more than 30 years. But what the world knows about the illness started in 1993 on the Navajo Nation.

After struggling to identify a dangerous respiratory illness spreading on the reservation at the time, medical researchers gained crucial insights from Navajo elders, noting that traditional oral histories had long associated spikes in deer mouse populations — driven by specific rainfall patterns — with deadly disease.

Indigneous knowledge directly informed the scientific discovery of what we know now as the Sin Nombre virus. The discovery also offers a lesson in public notification of diseases. Early media reports labeled the pathogen as the “Navajo flu” — which stigmatized the community for years afterward.

Tune into Native America Calling to look at the history of the hantavirus and the current efforts to prevent its spread.

The MV Hondius is at the center of a hantavirus outbreak among passengers and crew. The ship is seen here docked in the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Spain, on May 10, 2026. Photo: AcfiPress Noticias Canarias

Guests on Native America Calling

Dean Seneca (Seneca), CEO of Seneca Scientific Solutions+, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Buffalo, and Adjunct Instructor at University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York

Dr. Steven Bradfute, associate professor in the Center for Global Health at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine

Dr. Erin Phipps, New Mexico State public health veterinarian