Published Date: 2009-09-18 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Hantavirus update 2009 - Americas (10): USA (NM)
Archive Number: 20090918.3281
HANTAVIRUS UPDATE 2009 - AMERICAS (10): USA (NEW MEXICO)
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A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Date: Fri 18 Sep 2009
Source: NewsWest9.com [edited]
<http://www.newswest9.com/Global/story.asp?S=11158769>
A 22-year-old man from Rio Arriba County and a 61-year-old woman from
Taos County have been hospitalized in Albuquerque with hantavirus
[infection]. The New Mexico state Department of Health says New Mexico
has reported 4 cases this year [2009] of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome
[HPS]. A 25-year-old woman from Santa Fe County and a 65-year-old man
from San Miguel County contracted the illness earlier. Both have
recovered. New Mexico had 2 cases, both fatal, last year [2008].
Hantaviruses are contracted by breathing particles of rodent
droppings, urine or saliva. Health Department veterinarian Paul
Ettestad says most people get the deadly disease when cleaning out
enclosed areas that have mouse droppings.
Early symptoms include fever and muscle aches, a headache, nausea,
vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and a cough.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Although which hantaviruses are involved in these cases of HPS is not
reported, most likely Sin Nombre virus is the one responsible, which
has the deer mouse (_Peromyscus maniculatus_) as its reservoir host.
A map showing the location of the state of New Mexico, in the
southwestern USA, can be accessed at
<http://www.sioux.com/images/US_MAP.gif>
and the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map is at
<http://healthmap.org/r/00bF>.
A map showing the location of San Miguel County, in central New
Mexico, can be accessed at
<http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/maps/new_mexico_map.html>.
A picture of a deer mouse (_Peromyscus maniculatus_) is available at
<http://www.discoverlife.org/IM/I_RB/0000/320/Peromyscus_maniculatus,I_RB26.jpg>
- Mod.TY]