Officials with Public Health – Seattle & King County said Tuesday that they have seen two cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) since December, including one fatality.
Health officials describe the cases as follows:
The person who died was a man in his 30s who lived in Issaquah. He went to the emergency room on February 23rd, and died on February 24th. Tests that Public Health received on March 1st revealed he had hantavirus. The other person who was diagnosed with hantavirus lives in Redmond. She is a woman in her 50s and was diagnosed in December, 2016. She has recovered.
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is a serious respiratory disease caused by an infection with a type of hantavirus. Symptoms include fatigue, fever, headaches, muscle aches, dizziness and chills followed by coughing and shortness of breath. Approximately one-third of people who have Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome die from the disease.
In Washington State hantavirus is carried primarily by deer mice.
King County, Washington has only reported three locally acquired hantavirus infections; the two recent ones and a case from 2003.
“While it’s a concern that there are two locally-acquired cases relatively closely together, at this point, we do not know whether this indicates a general increase in risk for our area,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County. “Either way, these cases serve as an important reminder to be aware of the risk of hantavirus, know the symptoms of hantavirus, and how to clean up rodent infestations.”
Most people are infected by breathing in dust contaminated with rodent droppings, urine, saliva or nesting materials. Sweeping or vacuuming stirs up contaminated dust and can put people at risk for hantavirus. Rodent infestation in and around the home is considered the primary risk for hantavirus.
The best way to reduce the risk of contracting HPS is to prevent rodents from entering your home by sealing up any holes inside and outside of the house, setting traps and properly storing any food. People should be particularly careful when first opening up a seasonal cabin or trailer.
If evidence of a rodent infestation is found, health officials recommend the following easy steps to clean up safely:
- Air out the area by opening nearby windows for at least 30 minutes.
- Do not sweep or vacuum up any droppings, urine or nesting material. Instead spray the materials and surrounding area with a mix of 10 parts water and one part bleach. Let it soak for at least five minutes.
- Wear rubber or latex gloves and clean up the materials using paper towels.
- Mop or clean hard surfaces with a diluted bleach solution. Steam clean or shampoo any furniture or carpeting. Wash bedding or clothing that may have been contaminated with laundry detergent and hot water.
Related:
I’m the spouse of the hantavirus survivor in Redmond. The county health department did no follow up on our case at all, and did not report either case to the public until I set up a blog, discussed online, and began contacting media. Suddenly, a little action and a lot of cover-my-ass activity.
I set up the http://www.hantasite.com blog to provide accurate information about hantavirus. Virtually every information site I see, including King Counties’ contains significant errors or misleading information. The term “rodent infestation” is used in a public health context, meaning, “there have been mice here” but the connotation is that there are rats in the kitchen.
We have strong suspicion that our automobile cabin air system was the route of infection. These systems are commonly infested by Deer mice, and may be a source of more hantavirus than is reported. I will be posting an analysis of that soon in hantasite. I’m a materials scientist with a Ph.D. and my wife an RN. I have made a study of hantavirus. Please take a look at this blog.
The last, previous case of hantavirus contracted in King County was in 2003. Now two cases, both contracted here, have occurred in three months. That may be a remarkable coincidence, as the health commissioner suggests, or it may have something to do with the record crop of Big Leaf maple seeds, followed by an increased Deer mouse population. King County Health Dept. did NO investigation of my wife’s hantavirus, issued no warnings, released no information, did absolutely nothing, except call us to tell us the result was positive. Then a second person contracted it and died. They still didn’t notify anyone. So I did it. See my blog at http://www.hantavirus.com.
We have strong suspicions that the mechanism of infection was an infested automobile cabin air system in my wife’s Toyota Sienna van. These vans are known to be impossible to defend from rodents. Google “mouse cabin air filter” or any combination like that and many images of these infestations will come up. Or, look at the 40-50 images I posted in hantasite.com. I will be posting an analysis of cabin air infestation in a few days.