Hantavirus case in Riverside not likely cause for local concern
RIVERSIDE – Confirmation of what is believed to be the first human case of a rare viral disease in Riverside County is probably not cause for alarm in Imperial County, according to a local health official.
The Riverside University Health System issued a release Thursday announcing a confirmed case of the hantavirus in the county. The release said the patient contracted the rare virus and was briefly hospitalized and is recovering at home.
Riverside County health officials believe the patient might have been exposed to deer mice droppings or urine that contained hantavirus while in the Whitewater area. Although, hantavirus is not spread from person to person, officicals urged people who frequent remote areas of the county to take precautions to avoid exposure to rodent droppings or urine, which could contain the virus.
Imperial County Health Officer Dr. Stephen Munday said hantavirus is rare. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded only four cases in California in 2019.
He said he doesn’t recall any cases ever reported in Imperial County.
“This is a disease that is spread by exposure to rodent excrement, typically in remote areas with large rodent infestations,” he said. It is not spread from person to person, so there is no risk to others if someone contracts this.”
Hantavirus was first identified in the United States in 1993 and the virus has since been found throughout the United States. In Riverside County, health officials said that while the virus has been found in past years during surveillance of rodents and animal droppings, this may be the first confirmed human case. Since 1993, when testing for the virus began, there have been 90 confirmed cases in California.
It is caused by a virus that individuals get through contact with the urine, droppings or saliva of infected deer mice. Breathing small particles of mouse urine or droppings that have been stirred up into the air is the most common means of acquiring infection. The illness starts one to six weeks after exposure with fever, headache, and muscle ache, and progresses rapidly to severe difficulty in breathing and, in some cases, death.
“The mitigation (of the disease) is to avoid exposure to species of rodents that transmit the virus by excluding them from indoor housing environments,” Munday said.
When you are in wilderness areas or places that harbor mice, you can take the following steps to prevent infection:
• Avoid areas, especially indoors, where wild rodents are likely to have been present.
• Keep food in tightly sealed containers and store away from rodents.
• Keep rodents out of buildings by removing stacked wood, rubbish piles, and discarded junk from around homes and sealing any holes where rodents could enter.
• If you can clean your sleeping or living area, open windows to air out the areas for at least two hours before entering. Take care not to stir up dust. Wear plastic gloves and spray areas contaminated with rodent droppings and urine with a 10% bleach solution or other household disinfectants and wait at least 15 minutes before cleaning the area. Place the waste in double plastic bags, each tightly sealed, and discard in the trash. Wash hands thoroughly afterward.
• Do not touch or handle live rodents and wear gloves when handling dead rodents. Spray dead rodents with a disinfectant and dispose of in the same way as droppings. Wash hands thoroughly after handling dead rodents.
For additional information on preventing the spread of hantavirus, visit CDPH’s Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s hantavirus website page.