STONY BROOK — New York state officials are investigating a case of potentially deadly hantavirus after a Stony Brook University research physicist said he contracted the disease from a mouse bite back in August. Michael Vaughn, 72, said he began to experience flu and pneumonia-type symptoms about a month later. He spent four days at Stony Brook University’s intensive care recovery unit where doctors diagnosed him through blood tests with the rodent-bourn illness.

Medical experts say hantavirus has a mortality rate of more than 35 percent.