Hanta southwest tx virus

This image shows the relative size of deer mouse and white-footed mouse scat, compared with that of a cockroach and roof rat. A new browser window will open.

The ESIP Federation is comprised of Earth Science Information Partners: government agencies, national laboratories, universities, nonprofit organizations, and commercial businesses.

Type 1 ESIPs distribute satellite and ground-based data sets, and standardized products derived from those data sets. Visit the following for more information: Think there's a mouse in your house? Take the right precautions. Hantaviruses are zoonoses, diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. Strains found primarily in Asia and Europe affect the kidneys and may cause severe circulatory problems, but less than 10 percent of the people infected die.

The strain in the Four Corners outbreak, however, was different. Later named the Sin Nombre virus, it caused a much deadlier illness: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome HPS. Affecting the heart and lungs, HPS has a mortality rate of 50 percent.

Between and , it claimed the lives of more than 45 people in the southwestern United States. Identifying the pathogen was only the first step in addressing the Four Corners outbreak. Next, researchers had to figure out how the disease spread. All previous cases of hantavirus were spread by rodents, so researchers began trapping and examining as many rodent species as possible in the Four Corners area.

Other rodents have also been found to carry viruses that cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome: the cotton rat, ranging from the southeastern United States to South America; the rice rat, ranging from the southeastern United States to Central America; and the white-footed mouse, found throughout much of the United States and Mexico. Mice infected with hantavirus can transmit the disease to humans through bites that break the skin, but this is fairly rare.

Although roughly 30 percent of the deer mice tested in the Four Corners region investigation were carrying the Sin Nombre virus, they weren't sick or dying. A virus does itself no favors by killing its host. If humans were suddenly contracting the virus, their contact with the carrier rodents must have increased. Glass has used satellite data to map animal populations since the s. He realized that if he could map the distribution of animals, he could also map the diseases they carry.

Understanding the Four Corners outbreak wasn't a simple matter of knowing where to look; scientists also had to know when to look. Rodents that carry the Sin Nombre virus can be deceptively cute, but suspected carriers must be handled with extreme care. Glass and fellow investigators started reviewing satellite images from , the year before the outbreak.

It prefers wooded and brushy areas, although it will sometimes inhabit more open ground. The white-footed mouse is found throughout southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic and southern states, the midwestern and western states, and Mexico. It prefers wooded and brushy areas, although it will sometime inhabit more open ground. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link.

Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. Cotton Rat Sigmodon hispidus. Deer Mouse Peromyscus maniculatus. The virus gets into the air as mist from urine and saliva or as dust from feces. Breathing in the virus is the most common way of becoming infected, although you can also become infected by touching the mouth or nose after handling contaminated materials.

A rodent's bite potentially can also spread the virus. Symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome usually appear within 2 weeks of infection but can appear as early as 3 days, to as late as 6 weeks after infection.

First symptoms are general and flu-like: fever F ; headache; abdominal, joint, and lower back pain; sometimes nausea and vomiting. The illness is rare, but HPS cases are frequently associated with spring cleaning. DSHS recommends the following precautions:. Early symptoms of hantavirus infection include fatigue, fever and muscle aches.

These symptoms may be accompanied by headaches, dizziness, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Later symptoms include coughing and shortness of breath.