Spring brings increased exposure risk to Hantavirus Published March 18, 2008 By 27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs Office CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- The New Mexico Health Department announced that a 64-year-old man from Taos County has died from Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) on March 6, the first case of Hantavirus in New Mexico this year. With warmer weather comes more animal activity as the animal kingdom shakes off its winter coat for springtime activity. And with this activity comes the increased possibility of humans becoming exposed to Hantavirus. Hantavirus is a deadly disease transmitted by infected rodents through urine, droppings or saliva. People can contract the disease when they breathe in the virus. The deer mouse is the main culprit that carries the virus for in New Mexico. "The best defense against Hantavirus is to avoid disturbing areas of rodent infestation, including nests and droppings," said Dr. Paul Ettestad, the department's state public health veterinarian. For a Hantavirus to cause HPS, the virus must travel from the rodents that carry it to a person. A common way this happens is when a person breathes in the Hantavirus from the air. Let's create an imaginary scenario and go through the process step by step. Say you have a storage room in your home that you hardly ever enter. You keep old furniture there, old newspapers and magazines, and so on. At some point, a group of deer mice find their way into the room, looking for places to build nests. They found their way into the room through a crack--deer mice can squeeze through holes as small as a shirt button! Some mice chew through the fabric of an old armchair and build a nest inside it. Other mice shred bits of magazines and build nests under the shredded pieces. A few of these mice are infected with the Hantavirus. The infected mice don't show any signs of being sick. In fact, the virus does not seem to make them ill at all; it simply lives in their bodies. However, the virus is shed continuously from them: into the droppings and urine they leave around the room, and into their saliva, which dries on anything they have chewed, such as nesting material. Out in the environment like this, the virus can live for several days. Meanwhile, you decide to clean up your storage room. You go inside, spend a few minutes moving boxes and furniture. The mice hear you coming and scurry away, leaving a trail of fresh urine. Because you find mouse droppings and some of the furniture stuffing the mice have used as nesting material, you get a broom and sweep up the mess. As you move around and sweep, tiny particles of fresh urine, droppings and saliva, with the virus in them, get kicked up into the air. This is the aerosolization. It is these tiny particles that you breathe in--and this is the beginning of becoming sick with HPS. Because the virus is spread when virus-containing particles are stirred up into the air, an essential HPS prevention tactic in areas showing signs of rodents is to avoid actions that raise dust and to carefully wet the area down with disinfectant. The less chance the virus has to get into the air, the less chance it will be breathed in. Early symptoms of Hantavirus are fever and muscle aches, possibly with chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and cough. These symptoms develop within one to six weeks after rodent exposure. Although there is no specific treatment for Hantavirus, chances for recovery are better if medical attention is sought early. To protect yourself, avoid contact with mice and other rodents. Other important steps are: · Air out closed up buildings before entering. · Seal up homes so mice can't enter. · Trap mice until they are all gone. · Clean up nests and droppings using a disinfectant. · Put hay, wood, and compost piles as far as possible from your home. · Get rid of trash and junk piles. · Don't leave your pet's food and water where mice can get to it. In 2007, New Mexico had three cases of Hantavirus with one fatality. The 2007 cases were from Taos, San Miguel, and McKinley counties. In 2006, New Mexico had eight cases of Hantavirus with three fatalities. For more information about Hantavirus, call 800-879-3421 or check out the Department's website, www.nmhealth.org. (Information for this article was provided by the New Mexico Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control.)