Local health officials are advising residents and visitors alike to take precautions against coming in contact with rodents or areas infested by rodents.

In the United States, deer mice (plus cotton rats and rice rats in the southeastern states and the white-footed mouse in the Northeast) are the rodents that can be infected with a type of Hantavirus that causes HPS, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a serious respiratory disease.

These rodents shed the virus in their urine, droppings and saliva. The virus is mainly transmitted to people when they breathe in air contaminated with the virus. This happens when fresh rodent urine, droppings or nesting materials are stirred up.

For information on how to safely clean up rodent dropping, dead rodents, and nests and how to deter mice from getting into your house visit the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environmental website:
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/dc/zoonosis/hanta/Hanta_prevention.pdf

For more information:
www.cdphe.state.co.us/dc/zoonosis/hanta/index.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hantavirus Website