(DailyDig.com) – Health officials in Arizona have issued a warning that hantavirus has been spreading in their state since January. Contact with rodents, primarily Arizona’s deer mouse, transmits the deadly virus to humans, resulting in three fatalities and seven additional human cases, according to the health alert.
Contacting or handling any materials contaminated by the rodent’s feces, saliva, or urine transmits the virus to humans. Humans cannot transmit hantavirus to other humans.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Southwest and Western US report the majority of hantavirus cases, with Arizona reporting one of the highest rates of the virus in the country.
Dr. Aaron Glatt, a Mount Sinai infectious disease doctor, stated that hantavirus is fairly rare but is a serious illness that could cause a deadly respiratory infection. Even though most people only experience a mild illness, it can be fatal to a percentage of those who contract the disease.
Symptoms of hantavirus may appear within one or up to eight weeks of exposure to a rodent or the places where they live or take shelter.
The beginning symptoms include fatigue; muscle aches in the shoulders, back, or thighs; fever; or nausea with abdominal pain and vomiting.
If not treated, the illness could become more serious. It could travel to the lungs and start leading fluids through the blood vessels. This then leads to the respiratory tract filling up with fluids, causing the person to have shortness of breath, coughing, and a tightness in the chest, according to the American Lung Association.
About 38 percent of patients who develop lung symptoms are at risk of dying.
Dr. Glatt stated that the best prevention for contracting Hantavirus is to avoid contact with rodents. If they have occupied any space where a person comes into contact, clean and disinfect the rodent waste.
The Health Department recommends first airing out any rooms where the rodents were present for 30 minutes. Then, prior to cleaning, wear gloves, coveralls, shoe covers, and N95 masks.
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