BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - A Gallatin County woman has died of hantavirus, the Gallatin City-County Health Department said Wednesday.

The department is investigating how and where the 43-year-old woman contracted the disease, also called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

The woman's name was not released. She died about a week and a half ago, said Stephanie Murphy, the agency's human services director.

People get hantavirus by inhaling airborne particles from dried droppings, saliva or urine of infected deer mice, the department said. Symptoms may include fever, vomiting, muscle and body aches and fatigue. A person's lungs eventually begin filling with fluid, causing shortness of breath.

The disease is named after the Hantaan River in South Korea, where it was first identified.

In Montana, hantavirus is "relatively uncommon, considering the amount of potential exposures that occur daily all around the state," said Elton Mosher, disease surveillance specialist with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. "We see only one or two cases each year in this state."

Across the state, 27 people have been diagnosed with hantavirus and seven have died since the disease was first recognized in 1993.

The woman's illness is the second case in Gallatin County but the first resulting in death. A nonfatal case was reported in 2001.