Rodent-Borne Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) in Yosemite

Rodent Borne Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) in Yosemite National Park

Transmission Electron Micrograph Sin Nombre Hantavirus – Image courtesy Cynthisa Goldsmith and Luanne Elliott, CDC US Govt

Hantavirus Treatment and Prognosis

People with hantavirus are admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) where treatments include: oxygen, breathing tube or breathing machine in severe cases, and administration of Ribavirin to treat kidney-related problems and reduce the risk of death. There is no effective treatment for hantavirus infection in the lungs.

Hantavirus is a serious infection that can rapidly get worse, resulting in lung failure and death. Possible complications include kidney failure, heart failure, and lung failure. Despite aggressive treatment, at least half of people with hantavirus in their lungs die.

Current Hantavirus Outbreak Deaths

At least eight people have been infected with Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, and three people have died. As the United States CDC has assured the public, this disease has a self-limiting nature, since no cases of transmission between humans have ever been found.

References

National Institute of Health. National Institute of Health. (2012). Medlineplus. Accessed on September 12, 2012.
NBC News Services. 10,000 at risk of hantavirus in Yosemite Outbreak. (2012). Accessed on September 12, 2012.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 2012 – Yosemite National Park Outbreak 2012. Accessed on September 12, 2012.

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Decoded Science

Reader Question: “How does the mouse get the virus?”
No One

From other deer mice. The transmission cycle is species-specific; deer mice transmit Sin Nombre virus to other deer mice. Long-tailed pygmy rice rats (South America) transmit Andes hantavirus to other rice rats. There are many other rodent (and some shrews and moles) species that host hantaviruses. In each virus:rodent relationship, there is no pathology in the rodent and they do not clear the virus. Humans, on the other hand, get an aggressive inflammatory response by the immune system that causes the disease. The viruses do very little in terms of pathology in humans.
Michael

The imponderable question – deer mice are latent carriers of hantavirus which is present in their colonies. The manner by which they acquire the virus is unknown. Rodents are major killers of humans cf. the rat borne bubonic plague of the European 13th century [killing 300 million people] which is memorised in the ‘atishoo, atisho we all fall down, ring a ring a rosy’ nursery rhyme.
The deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) is the main carrier of hantavirus in the western United States. All wild rodents should be avoided. We all live within 2 metres of some type of rodent. Deer mice live in rural areas. Deer mice pass the virus to each other and some of the population is usually infected, but deer mice do not become ill or have any symptoms. In Washington State, 14% of 1,100 tested deer mice were found to be infected with Sin Nombre virus.
Infected deer mice are ubiquitous, so, human cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome may occur anywhere.