Officials: Hantavirus caused man's death

A Montauk case of hantavirus, a life-threatening disease spread to humans by rodents, has been confirmed by laboratory tests, state and local health officials said Thursday.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to investigate the case. There have been four hantavirus exposures in New York since officials began tracking it in the early 1990s.

CDC officials and the New York State Department of Health began investigating shortly after Montauk chiropractor David Hartstein, 35, died Friday.

Hartstein's wife, Heather, said CDC officials will be collecting more specimens from the Suffolk County medical examiner's office and inspecting her home to determine the strain that killed her husband.

She said he died after becoming severely ill four weeks after cleaning the basement of their home.

Two weeks ago, he began having minor pains, his wife said. The following week, he had a fever, and pain in his muscles and hands.

He spent most of the day before he died in bed. After complaining of nausea, he was taken to Southampton Hospital where he later died.

"The most important thing that we would want is for this to be an awareness made to people," said Heather Hartstein, 36, a special-education teacher. "I want for people to make conscious decisions when they are doing things like cleaning damp, dark spaces in their homes. They need to wear masks and gloves."

Hantavirus in humans is relatively rare. Since tracking began, the CDC has reported 568 cases in the United States.

Rodents, who host the virus, shed it in their urine, droppings and saliva, according to the agency. The disease is mainly spread to people who breathe in air contaminated with the virus, officials said.

Hartstein said she and her husband had lived in Montauk for nine years. The couple has three children, ages 5, 3, and 1.

"He was a supportive husband," she said. "He was a highly involved and loving father. He was a cherished doctor and friend."