Officials: No hantavirus or Ebola concerns locally

CASPER (WNE) — The Casper-Natrona County Health Department Board was told recently there is no need to panic over illnesses currently receiving national media attention.

Dr. Mark Dowell, the county health officer, informed the Board of Health Thursday that he did not believe hantavirus nor Ebola was a cause for panic in the county.

"There are multiple variations [of hantavirus], and they're doing genetic testing, obviously, molecular testing, to see why it does what it does, but this is not a panic situation," Dowell said. "Same with Ebola, I mean, Ebola, they're not letting folks from the Congo even in the U.S. right now."

Dowell said that in his 33 years as a physician, he has seen only five cases of hantavirus in the county, four of which were fatal.

However, those cases were of a different strain than the one that circulated aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship.

"All the real same story, mouse poop, generally, not spraying down the mouse poop, not wearing the mask, and then sweeping it up and enjoying the aerosolized virus," Dowell said. "The worst case I saw here died in eight hours; a 3-year-old died in eight hours.

It was pretty bad... But the one in the United States has nothing to do with [the strain aboard the MV Hondius]."

This story was published on May 26, 2026.