Which mice carry hantavirus

Bury, burn, or throw out rodent in appropriate waste disposal system. Disinfect gloves with disinfectant or soap and water before taking them off.

After taking off the clean gloves, thoroughly wash hands with soap and water or use a waterless alcohol-based hand rub when soap is not available. For more tips on cleaning up rodent debris, visit our rodents page. What precautions should I use working, hiking, or camping outdoors? Avoid coming into contact with rodents and rodent burrows or disturbing dens. Air out cabins and shelters, then check for signs of rodent infestation. Do not sweep out infested cabins.

Instead, use the guidelines above for disinfecting cabins or shelters before sleeping in them. Do not pitch tents or place sleeping bags near rodent droppings or burrows. If possible, do not sleep on the bare ground. Use tents with floors or a ground cloth. Keep food in rodent-proof containers! Handle trash according to site restrictions and keep it in rodent proof containers until disposed of. Understanding the Four Corners outbreak wasn't a simple matter of knowing where to look; scientists also had to know when to look.

Rodents that carry the Sin Nombre virus can be deceptively cute, but suspected carriers must be handled with extreme care. You could, for example, conclude that the area where people got sick has lots of trees. Does that mean being around trees helps the disease spread, or does it just mean that people like to have trees around their homes? Glass and fellow researchers estimated precipitation at 28 case sites and control sites during the springs of and They then compared those data to the previous six years' precipitation using rainfall records from weather stations.

They also examined Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery collected the year before the outbreak to estimate the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome risk. Glass and his collaborators published the results of their study in the May-June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

What Glass found is that, while there is a relationship between precipitation and hantavirus, it's not as simple as previously thought. In areas that are semiarid, like the U. Southwest, the satellite readings don't correspond well with the actual amount of vegetation. The images show both vegetation and bare soil, and depending on the soil type, you can get false readings," Glass said.

A crucial step in solving the puzzle, Glass said, is collecting ground truth data. He began overlaying risk maps from through to determine where the high-risk areas persisted, and he visited those sites with CDC researchers to learn more about them. The vegetation might look promising, but maybe the soil's too hard, so the mice can't burrow. Maybe there's not enough moisture in the soil.

These are all things we have to figure out, and public health officials need remote sensing scientists to understand the nuances of the imagery.

Another key to understanding hantavirus risk is acquiring more data. I'm positive there were earlier cases that just weren't recognized. Earlier cases of the Sin Nombre virus have been found in stored tissue samples taken from people who died of unknown lung diseases before the outbreak.

Now, the earliest known case of the Sin Nombre virus has been confirmed in a year-old Utah resident who died in But within 1 to 2 days, it becomes hard to breathe. The disease gets worse quickly. Symptoms include:. Hantavirus is a serious infection that gets worse quickly. Lung failure can occur and may lead to death.

Even with aggressive treatment, more than one half of people who have this disease in their lungs die. Call your provider if you develop flu-like symptoms after you come in contact with rodent droppings or rodent urine, or dust that is contaminated with these substances.

If you must work in an area where contact with rodent urine or feces is possible, follow these recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC :. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Updated September 19, Accessed May 28, Dolin R. California encephalitis, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, and bunyavirus hemorrhagic fevers.

Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; chap Take special precautions, such as wearing a respirator, when cleaning buildings with heavy rodent infestations. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version.

This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is an infectious disease characterized by flu-like symptoms that can progress rapidly to potentially life-threatening breathing problems. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Ferri FF. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. In: Ferri's Clinical Advisor Philadelphia, Pa.

Accessed Aug. Ciottone GR. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome attack.