BILLINGS (AP) -- A Big Horn County woman is the state's first case of hantavirus this year, state health officials said Wednesday.

The woman, in her 50s, has been released from a hospital, said Gayle Shirley, public information officer with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services in Helena. The department said privacy laws prevent it from releasing more detailed information about the woman, including her name.

The case was confirmed last week. It is the 26th case of the sometimes deadly hantavirus pulmonary syndrome reported in humans in Montana since 1993, according to Elton Mosher, a disease surveillance specialist with the agency.

People can 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 and making breathing otherwise difficult, the agency said.