Arizona health officials are growing increasingly concerned after seeing an increase in a rare virus spread by rodents that can cause serious health problems.
What’s happening?
As Physician’s Weekly explains, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced in an alert that the state has seen an increase in hantavirus infections, with seven confirmed cases and three deaths in the past six months.
“Hantavirus is a rare but important cause of serious and even fatal respiratory infection,” Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in New York City, told NBC News, according to Physician’s Weekly. “It’s transmitted by a variety of rodents, particularly the deer mouse, and can cause mild illness, but it causes fatal illness in a significant percentage of people who get this disease.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most hantavirus cases in the United States are reported in western and southwestern states, but Arizona is among the states with the highest number of reported infections. Health officials reported 11 hantavirus cases in Arizona between 2016 and 2022, according to Physician’s Weekly.
Why is this important?
Hantavirus is spread when particles containing the virus enter the air from the urine, saliva, or droppings of deer mice. Infection can lead to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).
Symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Without treatment, the infection can spread to the lungs and cause shortness of breath, chest tightness and coughing, according to the American Lung Association and summarized by Physician’s Weekly. About 38% of people who have lung symptoms may die from the infection.
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Although it is a rare disease in the United States, with the CDC reporting 850 cases between 1993 and 2021 (about 30 per year), the increase in hantavirus cases is a sign of a deeper problem.
According to Physician’s Weekly, experts have speculated that “climate change, such as the extreme heat waves that swept the country this summer, may also be partly responsible” for the increase in infections.
Trish Lees, public information officer for the Coconino County Department of Health and Human Services in Arizona, told NBC News that cases are seen more frequently in the summer because of increased rodent activity and people coming into contact with rodents more often.
Dr. Camilo Mora, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, explained that rising temperatures are causing rodents to seek shelter in the same way humans do.
“Many disease-carrying species are moving due to climate change, so while it’s difficult to pinpoint the role of climate change in any particular case, it has all the attributes to cause vector-borne disease outbreaks,” Mora said, according to Physician’s Weekly.
What is being done about this?
Officials have warned that the best way to protect yourself from hantavirus is to wear an N95 mask, gloves and protective clothing when entering a dirty or rodent-infested area. Anyone experiencing symptoms should seek medical attention immediately.
“The best way to prevent infection with this disease is to thoroughly disinfect and clean up all rodent waste and not come into contact with them,” Glatt told NBC News.
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