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ANCHORAGE - A respiratory illness that health officials say likely was caused by a virus circulating on Prince of Wales Island has killed one person and put another on a ventilator in an Anchorage hospital.

Genetic testing on samples taken from patients indicated the cause was adenovirus 14.

Epidemiologist Beth Funk called it a virulent version of a common bug best known for causing "respiratory crud in the winter."

"It's a fairly common virus, but this particular type, adenovirus 14, hasn't been seen commonly up until lately," Funk said. "In the last year it's been the main player in a couple of outbreaks that looked somewhat like the one that they're having on Prince of Wales Island."

The virus may be responsible for causing pneumonia in at least 32 people on the island west of Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska.

Seven of the 32 cases were severe enough to send patients on medical evacuation flights to hospitals in surrounding communities.

One patient was flown to Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage and put on a ventilator and another woman died, Funk said.

"That individual also had fairly significant underlying lung disease - chronic obstructive lung disease - and it would have put that person at a higher risk for bad outcome with any other infection on top of that," Funk said.

The division sent a team to the island last month to review medical records.

Scientists at the state virology laboratory in Fairbanks and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta collected specimens and conducted tests to determine the cause of the outbreak. The CDC identified adenovirus in six of 13 samples.

"If you can get a predominant germ on a fairly good proportion of those tests, then you go with that," Funk said. "You don't have to have every single test be positive, because no test is perfect."

While some infected people might not show symptoms, others develop a sore throat, cough, fever or pneumonia. Severe pneumonia and death are rare in otherwise healthy people, but the infirm are at increased risk for such complications, according to the CDC.

The virus is transferred by coughing and sneezing. It can also be contracted by touching an object, such as a doorknob, that has the virus on it and then touching one's mouth, nose or eyes, according to the CDC.

There's no cure for adenovirus but it will eventually cycle itself out, Funk said.

There was some concern the illness could spread to other communities, she said, but there have been no reports of widespread illness off the island.