Colorado public health officials investigating hantavirus death not linked to cruise ship cluster
In this photo illustration, a laboratory test tubes containing blood to be analyzed for the Hantavirus “Orthohantavirus” outbreak, held by a nurse. (Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo.) — Colorado public health officials are investigating the death of an adult resident as a result of hantavirus.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Douglas County Health Department said the death is not linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which led to 11 confirmed and probable cases, including two confirmed deaths and one suspected death.
The individual lived in Douglas County — located just south of Denver — but information about the patient’s name, age and sex were not immediately available.
Health officials said the individual was infected by the Sin Nombre hantavirus, which is the most common cause of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in North America.
HPS symptoms typically appear from one to eight weeks after contact with the virus, with early signs including fever, fatigue and muscle aches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of HPS patients will experience headaches, chills, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.’
Between four and 10 days after the initial phase of illness, symptoms including coughing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest can emerge, the CDC said, adding that a patient’s lungs can fill with fluid.
“Hantavirus infections caused by the Sin Nombre hantavirus occur regularly in Colorado, usually in the spring and summer, and can cause a severe and sometimes deadly respiratory disease,” according to public health officials. “In Colorado, the deer mouse is the rodent species that most commonly exposes people to the virus. Avoiding exposure to rodents and their urine, feces, saliva, and nesting materials is the best way to prevent infection.”
According to the CDC, there were six cases of Hantavirus in Colorado from 2020 to 2023.
Marty Makary attends an executive order signing in the Oval Office on April 18, 2026.(Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary intends to resign on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
His departure was in the works after he clashed publicly with lawmakers, major pharmaceutical companies and President Donald Trump himself. He was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Makary, who is a surgeon by training, gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing against masks for children and vaccine mandates, and criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for citing Israeli data in recommending boosters rather than conducting its own research.
Since taking office in March 2025, the commissioner has focused his efforts on reshaping vaccine policy in the U.S. and transforming American diets.
Makary appeared in a video on X alongside Kennedy when the secretary announced in May 2025 the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC’s immunization schedule for “healthy children and pregnant women.”
“There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children,” Makary said at the time.
Last year, Makary appeared at a news conference announcing the HHS and FDA would be implementing a series of measures to phase out eight artificial food dyes and colorings from America’s food supply by the end of 2026.
Makary said at the time that the agencies are looking to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings and to work with the food industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes used in cereal, ice cream, snacks, yogurts and more — claiming American children “have been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals.”
Makary also supported Kennedy’s updated federal dietary guidelines earlier this year. The guidelines recommended that Americans limit highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates but also advocated for consuming red meat and full-fat dairy, a reversal of past nutrition guidance.
“For decades, we’ve been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak and ignoring a giant blind spot: refined carbohydrates, refined sugars, ultra-processed foods,” Makary said. “In this new guidance, we are telling young people, kids, schools, you don’t need to tiptoe around fat and dairy. … You don’t need to push low-fat milk to kids.”
In early May, Trump criticized Makary for not moving quickly enough to approve flavored vape and nicotine products, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s advisers informed him that Makary was delaying the president’s effort to “save” vaping,” a pledge Trump made on social media during his presidential campaign, according to the Journal.
Jalapeño peppers on display at a local street market in San Antonio, Texas. (Getty Images/Gabriel Perez)
(NEW YORK) — Health officials are expanding an investigation into jalapenos served at Chipotle restaurants to include Qdoba restaurants. The Food and Drug Administration said the jalapenos may be a possible source of a growing salmonella outbreak that has infected 345 people across 27 states.
Both restaurants have removed the jalapenos from their stores, the FDA said.
Qdoba said in a statement to ABC News that it is “cooperating with public health authorities” in the investigation and have pulled jalapenos from their restaurants.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively removed jalapenos from all our restaurants at this time,” the restaurant chain said. “We take any report involving guest health seriously and are committed to responding appropriately based on the facts and guidance from public health authorities.”
“Food safety is our highest priority,” Qdoba added. “We maintain rigorous food safety standards and work closely with our suppliers, distribution partners, and restaurant teams to help ensure the safety and quality of the food we serve.”
Chipotle previously told ABC News they had removed jalapenos from affected restaurants in multiple states as well.
“We have a robust ingredient traceability system and, upon learning of a potential Salmonella outbreak in the supply chain impacting several food service retailers, we proactively identified jalapenos as a potential common ingredient from a common lot, removed them from the restaurants where they had been distributed, and replaced them with product from different growers,” Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, said in a statement.
The FDA identified through a traceback investigation that both Chipotle and Qdoba received food ingredients that were grown in Mexico and imported by Coast Citrus Distributors from Sinaloa. Coast Citrus Distributors has since agreed to recall jalapeno product from the market, per the FDA.
Salmonella are bacteria that can cause a common foodborne illness called salmonellosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections tend to occur more in the summer, when warmer weather presents ideal conditions for the bacteria to grow, the agency states.
Symptoms of a salmonella infection may include watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, headache, nausea, vomiting, and a loss of appetite, according to the CDC. Symptoms can start anywhere from six hours to six days after infection and can last from four to seven days, the agency says.
According to the CDC, the highest number of reported salmonella cases are currently located in Minnesota and Colorado, with at least 110 cases in each state so far. Overall, there have been zero deaths reported but 36 have been hospitalized, the CDC said.
The Minnesota Department of Health previously told ABC News the agency expects the number of salmonella cases to potentially increase in the coming days, noting that “it takes us a while to detect cases in surveillance.”
“Our investigations often start with speaking to persons diagnosed with a foodborne illness that were reported to the health department as part of our surveillance,” the department said. “We’d like to ask the public to please answer our calls. The information they provide is critical to solving outbreaks quickly.”
The FDA said it does not consider there to be an ongoing risk from eating at Qdoba or Chipotle restaurants.
Each year, the CDC estimates the U.S. sees about 1.35 million salmonella infections.
ABC News has reached out to GrubMarket, which owns Coast Citrus Distributors for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Walking faster for 30 minutes per day can lower the risk of death in some adults, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Australia and Spain looked at 1approximately 70, 000 adults between ages 40 and 69.
Participants were broken into four categories: under 5,000 steps a day, between 5,000 and 7,000 steps a day, between 7,500 and 10,000 steps a day and above 10,000 steps a day.
The researchers also timed each participant’s peak 30-minute cadence, or the average steps per minute during the most active 30 minutes of the day.
Results showed that the group with under 5,000 steps a day, a level considered as a sedentary lifestyle — but with a peak 30-minute cadence of between 60 to 90 steps per minute — had a lower risk of death than those with a slower peak 30-minute cadence.
Results showed that the group with under 5,000 steps a day — but with a peak 30-minute cadence of 80 steps per minute — had a lower risk of death than those with a slower peak 30-minute cadence.
The death risk was similar to those within the 5,000 to 7,500 steps per day group who walked at a slower pace, but with a peak cadence of 60 steps per minute.
However, the group with 7,500 to 10,000 steps per day had the lowest chance of death regardless of how fast those steps were accumulated, according to the study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The authors said their findings provide evidence for stepping up the intensity when walking.
They added that the results “may inform step-based interventions for middle-aged and older adults, particularly individuals with barriers to increasing daily step counts or stepping intensity.”
The study had some limitations; participants only needed to log three days of activity to qualify, for example.
“Our study moves beyond single-metric approaches (e.g., focusing solely on daily step counts) to examine combinations of different step dimensions in relation to mortality risk, informing future step-related public health and clinical guidelines,” the authors wrote.
Dr. Varun Mehta is a fourth-year resident at Mount Sinai Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
