Infected Mice Bring Hantavirus Alert Care Urged In Cleaning Farm Buildings After WSU Discovery
Whitman County health officials are warning residents to be careful cleaning out areas that might have rodents.
They issued the warning Monday after two wild deer mice infected with hantavirus were found inside a building at Washington State University.
John Skyles, county director of environmental health, said the infected mice came as no surprise because a significant percentage of wild rodents carry the disease.
However, he said: “Since we know it’s there in low percentages in rodent populations throughout the western United States at least, it makes sense to take those precautions.”
Hantavirus has infected more than 130 people, most of them in the West, since it first appeared in the Southwest in 1993. It can trigger Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which has killed roughly half its victims.
The virus is contracted by humans when they inhale tiny particles from rodent feces, urine or saliva.
Ironically, WSU’s infected mice were found in the university’s Laboratory Animal Resources Center. Lab employees learned the mice were infected after they had them tested in early May along with lab animals, which came up clean, said Gwen Van Orden, a veterinary technician.
Dwight Hagihara, WSU director of environmental health, said the university asked the county to issue a warning about the disease because infected rodents could just as likely be found in “any farm building out there.”
The county is warning residents to take extra precautions cleaning areas where mice or other rodents have eaten, left droppings or nested. Steps include wearing latex or rubber gloves, wetting down areas with a bleach solution and avoiding vacuuming, sweeping or dusting.
Closed-up buildings should be thoroughly aired out before being cleaned.
“We don’t want people inhaling dust and stirring up dust in areas that have been infested with rodents,” Skyles said. “If they go into a shed, if they have to go in there and clean up, they need to take precautions to minimize the amount of dust that they’re going to be inhaling.”
, DataTimes