County Issues Mice Warning

Because a case of hantavirus was reported in Bingham County, authorities are warning people to treat rodents and their droppings very carefully.

The best defense against the virus, spread by deer mice droppings, is common sense, epidemiologist Jack Bennett told a news conference Friday.

“Treat rodent poop with respect, folks,” Bennett told about 80 members of the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Tribes.

A Fort Hall resident was stricken with the potentially deadly virus last month while cleaning out an empty building east of Blackfoot, Bennett said. The victim, a man in his 30s, has recovered fully.

Bennett would not release the man’s name or when he contracted the virus.

Health department officials distributed brochures about hantavirus, which is carried in the urine, saliva and feces of infected deer mice.

Tribal leaders are concerned about the situation, said Shoshone-Bannock Executive Director Cap Huges. All tribal buildings are being checked for signs of rodents.

Hantavirus first made headlines three years ago in the Southwest. The most recent case in eastern Idaho was in 1994 when a 23-year-old woman died from the virus after cleaning a Blackfoot house.

A 1994 study at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory showed about 10 percent of the site’s deer mice carried the virus.