When Spring Cleaning Can Be Deadly Health Officials Advise Precautions To Prevent Hantavirus

The attic’s full of boxes, the garage is totally mud-tracked and the tool shed badly needs organizing.

It’s officially spring - the season cleaning projects inch their way up the priority lists of those eager to put winter behind them.

But Washington and Idaho health officials are urging Northwest residents to use proper precautions when embarking on spring cleaning projects to avoid contracting hantavirus, a rare but potentially deadly respiratory disease spread by rodents.

“It is always an issue. The rodents have it here, we know that through lab tests. You always want to take precautions,” said Whitman County Environmental Health Specialist Randall Doneen.

For most, that means wet cleaning methods using bleach instead of dusting, vacuuming or sweeping.

“Air the place out and don’t stir things up,” Doneen advised.

Hantavirus was first reported in the United States in 1993 after an outbreak in the Southwest. Since then, 155 cases in 26 states have been identified. Washington and Idaho have among the highest incidence of the disease, which is carried primarily by deer mice.

Eleven hantavirus cases have been confirmed in Washington. All of them occurred in rural areas and six were fatal.

Hantavirus-positive deer mice have been found in Washington’s western and eastern counties. Last June, several wild deer mice caught in Washington State University buildings tested positive.

Idaho health officials have documented 10 hantavirus cases, including three new incidents in 1996. All the cases occurred in the more arid, southern part of the state. But even though hantavirus has yet to surface in any of Idaho’s five northern counties, North Central Health District Environmental Health Director Paul Guenther said the region’s mice do host the virus.

“When you look at the national numbers, Idaho is still one of the top states in terms of hantavirus cases,” said Roy Moulton, manager of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s virology division in Boise. “It’s not an easy infection to get, but it is one that certainly can be dangerous.”

Hantavirus cases are relatively rare, considering that approximately 10 percent of the mice population carries the disease. But when contracted, about half the cases are fatal, Moulton said.

With an incubation period of one to three weeks, hantavirus symptoms begin similar to cold and flu, but then rapidly worsen, triggering respiratory problems as the lungs fill with fluid.

Most U.S. exposure occurs in the home or in rural areas where humans have contact with mice droppings, items rodents have handled, eaten or lived in, or by sweeping dry droppings and spreading the virus through the air.

There are no cases of the disease being spread between people or by dogs and cats.

The best precaution is preventing rodents in the first place by keeping areas clean and minimizing food sources, Doneen said. Where mice are present, a mixture of one part bleach to nine parts water kills the virus. When cleaning an attic, garage or shed, health officials recommend airing out the building for at least an hour, then using the wet method of cleaning with rags, sponges and mops soaked in disinfectant.

For earthen surfaces, like a shed with a dirt floor, a bleach and water mixture can be sprayed, allowed to dry and then swept. Sweeping, vacuuming or dusting rodent droppings should be avoided if possible.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Hantavirus alert