Hantavirus - A cause for concern?

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So some of you may remember about two weeks ago I found what I assume was a deer mouse crawling in my bed at night. I set a trap and caught it, and sealed up access points all around the house.

I got tested for lyme and a few other diseases which came back negative. I still feel lethargic and meh, and haven't been sleeping well at night. I don't have a fever or really any other symptoms aside from feeling tired.

I cannot for the life of me stop worrying about contracting Hantavirus from this mice encounter. I found droppings in a bathroom drawer and in several places in the garage of the house im renting, which i thoroughly disinfected with bleach before removing. I also went into a crawl space over the garage which was loaded with dead bugs. I didn't really see any mouse droppings but I know they were in there.

Am I just being paranoid? Anyone have experience with this sometimes fatal virus?
 
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Hantavirus is one of the things my wife studied. If I remember correctly, it can be fatal even with support and can be quite nasty.

With the ebola patients coming to the USA for treatment, I think the treatment and support protocol for hemorrhagic fever has improved.

As I'm sure you know, if you have the symptoms, go to the hospital immediately.

Been there, done that. I've had my share of hospitalizations due to a particularly nasty strain of EB virus. Nearly killed me.
 
I think that is extremely unlikely. Now if hunders of them were roaming your house over the last 5 years than it might be a concern.

I know a number of years ago we helped clean out my mother-in-laws house she lived alone for several years. The garage/basement/attic had mega mouse droppings and we were knee deep in it. I was concerned but there was no problem. IMHO you are worrying needlessly.
 
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Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is an extremely serious but thankfully rare disease. About half the people who get it die. And yes you can get it from deer mice and deer mouse urine and droppings, but the deer mouse would have to be carrying the disease. And of course not all do. I have no idea whether Hantavirus is endemic in your area but your local public health people will know.

Sounds like you've done a lot of the right things. Cleaning with wet methods and disinfectants is the right way. You'll want to wear gloves of course and disinfect your gloves before taking them off, that and lots of hand washing of course. Generating dust from mouse droppings would not be good. I'd wear a half mask respirator with HEPA cartridges (to avoid breathing any dust) when entering a basement or similar area if I were doing the clean up. A little prevention goes a long way.

Here is a good information source: https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/pdf/hps_brochure.pdf
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
I should change my sig to resident hypochondriac.


THIS^^^^

You do not have Hanta.

But you could have a tick borne illness and should have gone on prophylactic antibiotics.
As was mentioned at the time of your earlier thread, Lymes does not always show up in a blood test.
There are several tick borne illnesses that can have your symptoms.

Are your lymph nodes swollen in the region of your tick bite?

It sounds more like you have a case of alpha-MR-32 infection.
Do you tire and find yourself short of breath after sprinting 100 yards?
Do your muscles ache after swimming one mile?
Do you feel sleepy at night and in the pre-dawn hours of morning?
Do you feel lethargic if you don't eat for a day?
 
From what I remember, and I could be wrong, one of the things hantavirus attacks is your liver. So if in doubt you might want to get your doctor to write a prescription for you to have some blood drawn for you liver function check.
 
Do you go to WebMD to find out answers about your car ?

Then why the heck are you asking about a disease with a 38% mortlity rate on an lubrication forum?
 
Originally Posted By: ArcticDriver
Do you go to WebMD to find out answers about your car ?

Then why the heck are you asking about a disease with a 38% mortlity rate on an lubrication forum?


To be fair, I did post it in the off-topic section.
 
If you're concerned, call your county or state board of health and see if any hantavirus victims were ever in local hospitals Google is your friend. Hantavirus and your zip code? Mice are apart of old houses wit woods around them. My wife is into all the horrible diseases and she keeps threatening to call an exterminator. I haven't caught it yet but I have started to wear gloves when disposing of my victims.
 
The White Footed mouse is the intermediate host for the tick born diseases. They don't show up on the blood tests for quite some time. It's possible you have a tick born disease but it would come from ticks or ticks in the nymph stage. If you go on antibiotics, it should be doxycycline or a cephalosporin.
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
If you're concerned, call your county or state board of health and see if any hantavirus victims were ever in local hospitals Google is your friend. Hantavirus and your zip code? Mice are apart of old houses wit woods around them. My wife is into all the horrible diseases and she keeps threatening to call an exterminator. I haven't caught it yet but I have started to wear gloves when disposing of my victims.


Closest thing I found was some college professor got bit in an Adirondack lean-to in 2012 while hiking and came down with the virus.

Here's all of the tests that they did:

 
If you had hantavirus it would have walked right through you by now my Uncle in Wyoming contacted it and they thought he had the flu or something three days later he was dead!
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
If you had hantavirus it would have walked right through you by now my Uncle in Wyoming contacted it and they thought he had the flu or something three days later he was dead!


Sorry to hear about your Uncle. That is scary.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
I should change my sig to resident hypochondriac.


Hey now, better be safe than sorry, no need for name calling you fancy word picker

Op, get a blood test, it will show if you have any infections
 
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