The couple were found to have been afflicted with a hantavirus, the first known cases of the disease in the US. On March 24 of this year, Chinese state media confirmed a man from Yunnan Province travelling to Shandong Province for work had died of hantavirus. Speaking to express.co.uk, Professor Jon Cohen, an infectious disease expert of Brighton and Sussex Medical School explained: “There are two families of hantaviruses, one of which causes a pneumonia type illness, another which involves kidneys and kidney failure and a bleeding problem.