Hantavirus season kicks off with 4 cases

The Durango Herald ^ | June 5, 2008

[george76]

Health department recommends residents take precautions

Public-health officials are urging residents to take precautions to avoid hantavirus.

Four cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome have already been reported in 2008, with one resulting in a fatality. The most recent cases were confirmed last week in Delta and Dolores counties. Two previous cases of hantavirus were reported in Kiowa County in February and Fremont County in early May. The patient in Kiowa County died.

"This year's heavy snowpack has provided moisture for ample vegetation that provides food for rodents, and often results in a large jump in both mouse populations and infection rates," said John Pape, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment epidemiologist who specializes in animal-related diseases.

Hantavirus is a serious respiratory disease carried by deer mice that are common to rural areas throughout the state. Deer mice are brown on top and white underneath, with large ears relative to their head size. The virus can infect humans who inhale dirt and dust contaminated with deer mice urine and feces when working in rodent-infested structures.

Hantavirus - which is fatal in nearly half of the cases - begins with high fever, severe body aches, headache and vomiting. Within one to five days, the illness quickly progresses to respiratory distress, including a dry cough and difficulty breathing when the lungs fill with fluid. The symptoms begin from one to six weeks after exposure.

There is no effective treatment for hantavirus

[george76]

[End Times Sentinel]

“Hanta virus”???
Is that like the dreaded Hunta virus where a committee of military leaders sets up a potentially deadly dictatorship in your respiratory system?

[Tijeras_Slim]

We’re #1!
We’re #1!
We’re #1!

[CougarGA7]

If only our state would crack down on those people addicted to snorting rat scat.

[CedarDave]

Give me a case of the bubonic plague any day.

[moondoggie]

There's so many deer mice this year up here that our cats stopped eating them.

We're just finding dead bodies all over the place and the turkey vultures are making short work of those.

[neverdem]

George, thanks for the ping & map.

micro ping

[CougarGA7]

TS and I have decided that Hanta Virus should be called Rat Scat Fever.

[familyop]

In more sensible times, diseased animal populations were killed down, until targeted diseases no longer spread. Now running interference in order to increase problematic animal populations is a king-of-the-hill game. It's part of the first settler syndrome and Baby Boomer apathy syndrome. Criminals dismiss likely consequences, and so do many in our generation.

[george76]

Liberals love to defend the carriers of the bubonic plague ...

[familyop]

"Liberals love to defend the carriers of the bubonic plague ..."

...agreed. Commies to the north defend them, and fascists to the south feed and house them. What happened to the conservatives of yesteryear? Am I a rare relic?

[george76]

We both

[Cicero]

Thanks for the ping. Someone in our town evidently died of this, from what I’ve heard.

I had to do a lot of heavy barn cleaning when we moved into our house here, and I must say that I wore a dust mask for a lot of it.

[george76]

Get a really good mask for it is a virus. Some think that spraying with ammonia helps some.

.

[Sam's Army]

Similar as well to the Swine Flu; which as you know turned untold thousands into pigs in the early part of the last century...