Heavy rains that drenched parts of the southwestern U.S. last winter and spring will likely drive an outbreak of deadly Hantavirus in 2006, according to a biologist who studies rodents that carry the disease.
Hantavirus causes bleeding, kidney failure, and lung infections. People catch the disease after they inhale infected particles of dried rodent dung and urine. About 36 percent of all reported human cases are fatal.
Terry Yates, a biologist and vice provost for research at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, says major outbreaks of the virus often occur about a year and half after a wet winter, such as the one the Southwest experienced in 2005.
Wet weather allows more food plants to grow in the spring and summer, which in turn leads to larger rodent populations, Yates explains.
Denser rodent populations spread the disease by facilitating mouse-to-mouse transmission and by increasing the competition for food, which sends more infected mice inside peoples' homes in search of a bite to eat.
"There was a big increase in human cases [this summer], and we think there will be even more next year," Yates said.
Paul Ettestad, a public health veterinarian for the New Mexico Department of Health in Santa Fe, agrees that there is increased potential for a Hantavirus outbreak in the spring and summer of 2006. But, he said, widespread infection rates can be prevented.
"There's a huge behavioral component," he said. "If people are aware and take precautions, then you won't see as many cases."
Ettestad recommends the following steps:
• Plug up all points of entry to the house, such as holes around gas, plumbing, and electric lines, and windows and screens.
• Store pet food and trash inside to decrease the number of mice that congregate near the home.
• Place stacked wood and compost piles at least a hundred feet (30 meters) away from the home.
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