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“We’re really just beginning to understand how widespread and complex this virus is in rodent populations here.”

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Researchers found unusually high hantavirus levels in rodents in the Pacific Northwest, suggesting greater exposure risk in the surrounding agricultural communities.

The area with the biggest prevalence is the Palouse region, which includes parts of eastern Washington and north-central Idaho in the Pacific Northwest.

Researchers from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine found unexpectedly high levels of Sin Nombre virus (SNV), which is the strain most strongly linked to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) — among local rodent populations. 

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In summer 2023, they collected samples from 189 deer mice, voles and chipmunks at eight farms and two forest sites.

Nearly 30% of sampled rodents showed evidence of prior exposure and about 10% had active infections, according to the study press release. The rodents that tested positive were from both agricultural environments (farms) and natural settings (wilderness).

While deer mice are the primary carriers of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, the researchers found infections across multiple rodent species.

This suggests that Sin Nombre virus may be more widespread in the region than previously thought.

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The findings were published in 2026 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a peer-reviewed journal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We were surprised both by how common the virus was locally and by how little data existed for the Northwest,” said Stephanie Seifert, the study’s corresponding author and principal investigator of the Molecular Ecology of Zoonotic and Animal Pathogens lab in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, in the press release. 

“We’re really just beginning to understand how widespread and complex this virus is in rodent populations here.”

The Sin Nombre virus, the most common hantavirus in the U.S., is typically spread to humans through inhalation of aerosolized rodent urine, droppings or saliva and is not known to spread person-to-person.

This is different from the Andes virus, the strain linked to the recent outbreak on board the MV Hondius cruise ship. Andes virus is the only hantavirus that is capable of spreading between people through close, prolonged contact.

“People may be exposed more often than we realize, but severe cases are more likely to be tested for hantavirus.”

Dr. Sonja Bartolome, an expert in pulmonary and critical care at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, pointed out that since national tracking began in 1993, the illness has remained rare, with 864 cases reported between 1993 and 2022.

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“Most cases have occurred in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and 94% have been reported in states west of the Mississippi River,” Bartolome, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

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“It is important to conduct research that expands our understanding of how the virus spreads,” she went on. “Studies like this – which obtain and compare viral genetic sequences across regions and animals – help clarify how the virus moves geographically and between species.”

Although similar findings have been reported in other regions, this is the first study to reveal the pattern in this part of the country, Bartolome noted.

“Because humans most commonly contract hantavirus through exposure to aerosolized rodent urine or droppings, precautions remain essential when cleaning areas with evidence of rodent activity,” she added.

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The study presented some limitations, primarily that it only measured the infection in rodents and did not evaluate human transmission risk.

Additionally, the samples were only taken in the Palouse region and may not be generalized to all the Pacific Northwest.

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The research was also conducted during a single season, which means the conclusions don’t reflect year-round data.

The study suggests the need for expanded hantavirus monitoring in the Pacific Northwest, especially in agricultural areas. 

The researchers recommend efforts to prevent rodent exposure for living and farming in rural areas. Longer-term studies could help clarify how environmental conditions and seasonal changes affect prevalence of the virus, they added.

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“People may be exposed more often than we realize, but severe cases are more likely to be tested for hantavirus,” said Pilar Fernandez, a co-author on the study and a disease ecologist in the Allen School whose research focuses on the eco-epidemiology of zoonotic diseases, in the release.

“Understanding that gap — how exposure translates into disease — is the next big step.”

How long you sleep could be linked to how long you’ll live.

A new study, published in the journal Nature, found that people who slept too little or too long showed signs of “older biology.”

Researchers from Columbia University in New York used global biobank data from about 500,000 people who disclosed self-reported sleep duration in a 24-hour period, including naps.

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Reported sleep times were compared with 23 biological aging clocks, estimating whether various parts of the body looked biologically older or younger than the individual’s actual age.

Short and long sleep were both linked with signals of a higher biological age. They were also associated with a higher risk of future diseases and all-cause mortality, the researchers found.

In nine of the aging clocks, the researchers found “statistically significant” links between sleep and aging, including in the brain, heart, immune system and skin.

Those with the “lowest biological age gap” were women who slept for 6.5 to 7.8 hours and men who slept for 6.4 to 7.7 hours, according to the study.

Longer sleep had a stronger link to psychiatric-related outcomes, while short sleep had more physical impacts on cardiovascular, metabolic, musculoskeletal, psychiatric, neurological, pulmonary and gastrointestinal conditions.

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The U-shaped results also showed that shorter sleep led to a 50% higher relative risk for all-cause mortality, while longer sleep had about a 40% higher risk.

The researchers noted that self-reported sleep poses a limitation to the study. As it was observational in design, it does not prove that sleeping exactly six to eight hours will slow aging.

Saema Tahir, MD, a New York-based board-certified sleep medicine physician, reflected on these findings in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“Sleep is really when the body does its most critical repair work, including cellular restoration, immune regulation, hormonal balance, and even clearing out metabolic waste from the brain through what we call the glymphatic system,” said Tahir, who was not involved in the study.

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“When sleep is consistently too short or too long, those processes get disrupted. Over time, that disruption accumulates at the cellular level.”

This effect is proven in increased inflammatory markers and cellular changes, which are “hallmarks of accelerated aging,” Tahir noted.

“So, the relationship isn’t just correlational; there are real physiological mechanisms connecting poor sleep to the body aging faster than it should.”

Tahir cautions her patients not to treat the six- to eight-hour recommendation as a “rigid prescription,” as sleep is individualized.

For example, a healthy 25-year-old and a 70-year-old with cardiovascular disease have “very different sleep architecture and needs,” according to the expert.

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“What I tell my patients is to use that range as a starting framework, but pay attention to how you feel,” she advised. “Are you waking up refreshed? Can you stay alert throughout the day without caffeine propping you up? Those functional cues matter just as much as the number on the clock.”

For certain people, like pregnant women, athletes and people recovering from illness, these sleep needs can shift “considerably.”

“Sleep duration is important, but … getting adequate sleep and REM sleep that allows our bodies to heal, clear, process and repair is much more important,” Tahir said.

Regardless of sleep time, those who don’t achieve quality sleep often struggle, she shared.

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“I’ve seen patients who log seven hours but spend most of that time in light sleep, barely touching the deep slow-wave or REM stages that are most restorative,” Tahir said. “They age just as poorly, sometimes worse, than someone getting six hours of genuinely consolidated, high-quality sleep.”

Deep sleep is the phase when growth hormone is released and tissue repair peaks, and REM sleep is “critical” for cognitive health and emotional regulation, according to the expert.

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“So, chasing hours without addressing sleep fragmentation, sleep apnea or poor sleep architecture is missing the bigger picture,” she said.

The takeaway from this study, according to Tahir, is that sleep is not a “lifestyle luxury,” but a “biological necessity with measurable consequences for how we age and how healthy we are.”

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There’s still a cultural tendency to see sleep deprivation as a “badge of productivity,” which she pushes back against. “But I also want people to avoid the other extreme — health anxiety about their sleep can actually make sleep worse.”

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The sleep expert concluded that “consistent, good-quality sleep is one of the most accessible tools we have for healthy aging.”

“It doesn’t require a prescription or expensive intervention — it requires prioritization.”