Gene Hackman died of cardiovascular disease about a week after his wife died of hantavirus, according to the New Mexico medical examiner.

Authorities say hantavirus is blamed in the death of Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa. The rare virus is spread by contact with rodents or their urine or feces.

Betsy Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare rodent-spread disease with a mortality rate up to 50% in the American Southwest, officials said.