HOUSTON – Test results show that there has not been an outbreak of a potentially deadly virus in The Woodlands located in the Houston metropolitan area.
Last week it was feared a woman had been infected with hantavirus as she helped clean a home for a TLC cable show "Hoarders: Buried Alive".
Initial tests for one woman helping with the clean up had come back positive, but health officials say the result was a "false positive".
State health officials tested the house, the woman and two other people and all the results came back negative.
"Three samples were collected form individuals who were inside the home that you guys are aware of, including the individual who was ill," said Dr. Mark Escott of the Texas Health Department in Montgomery County. "I am pleased to report all three of those tests have come back negative for hantavirus."
Hantavirus is very rare and has no known cure. Health officials say it is contracted by breathing in dried urine and feces from infected rodents. Hantavirus has been blamed for the deaths of three people who reportedly contracted it at Yosemite National Park in California.
There has never been a recorded case of it in Montgomery County.
