Hantavirus

Hantavirus Precautions

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

• It started in the Southwest, but it's NOT an "Indian" disease. You can be old or young, male or female, of any race, living anywhere in almost any part of the Americas. Healthy, active people are more likely to become infected because it's their activities that put them in contact with the virus.
  
  
• 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. 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.
  
  
• Researchers do not believe that any other types of animals besides rodents transmit the Hantaviruses that cause HPS. This would include farm animals like cows, chickens or sheep and insects like mosquitoes. Dogs and cats do not carry the virus, but they may bring infected rodents into contact with people if they catch infected rodents and carry them home. Guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils and other such pets are not thought to carry Hantavirus.
  
  
• Researchers believe that you may be able to get the virus if you touch something that has been contaminated with rodent urine, droppings or saliva, and then touch your nose or mouth. Researchers also suspect that if virus-infected rodent urine, droppings or saliva contaminates food that you eat, you could also become sick.
  
  
• Any activity that puts you in contact with rodent droppings, urine or nesting materials is a risk. That would include such activities as opening up cabins and sheds, working in the enclosed, skirted areas under mobile homes, or cleaning outbuildings that have been closed during the winter, suchas barns, garages or storage facilities for farm and construction equipment. These are activities in which you may directly touch rodents or their droppings and/or "stir up the dust" that contains the virus.
  
  
• Hikers and campers can also be exposed when they use infested trail shelters or camp in other rodent habitats. Precautions to take when camping include not sleeping on bare ground, using ground cloths beneath tents and pitching tents in areas clear of rodent droppings and burrows.
  
  
• Construction and utility workers can be exposed when they work in crawl spaces under houses or in vacant buildings that may have a rodent population.
  
  
• Overall, the chance of being exposed to Hantavirus is greatest when people work, play or live in closed spaces where rodents are actively living. But recent research results show that many people who have become ill with HPS got the disease after having been in frequent contact with rodents and/or their droppings for some time. But many people who have become ill reported that they had not seen rodents or their droppings at all. Therefore, if you live in an area where the carrier rodents like the deer mouse are known to live, take sensible precautions before you do activities like those described above even if you don't see any rodents or their droppings.
  
  
• For homeowners, the best precaution is to eliminate rodents from in and around the house. Openings from the outside that are a quarter-inch or larger in size should be sealed, homeowners should move woodpiles 100 feet away from the house, and they should make sure not to attract rodents with food sources such as pet food, birdseed or livestock.
  
  
• If dead rodents or droppings are encountered, the area should be thoroughly aired out before cleaning. In addition, any carcass and droppings or contaminated area should be wetted down with a bleach solution of 1/2 cup bleach to 5 cups of water (1 to 10 dilution). The person should wait 20 minutes before cleaning, wear rubber gloves and dispose of debris in double plastic bags. Vacuuming is preferred to sweeping so that dust is not stirred up into the air.
  
  
• The symptoms of HPS are flu-like fever, chills and muscle aches, and perhaps fatigue, coughing headaches, vomiting and stomach pain in the early stages. In the later stages, the lungs fill with fluid and breathing becomes difficult. Anyone exhibiting such symptoms within 8 weeks of suspected contact with rodents or their droppings within an enclosed space should contact a physician immediately.
  
  

More information about the disease is available from the City of Aspen Environmental Health Department or from Community Health Services in the Pitkin County Health and Human Services Building near Aspen Valley Hospital.