ND Health Department: Watch for hantavirus viruses during spring cleaning

With the arrival of spring in North Dakota, ND's Ministry of Health is asking people to take care of cleaning cabins, sheds, and other outbuildings.

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is a viral infection that can cause serious lung disease. In general, infected rodents spread the virus in their urine, feces, and saliva. The virus is transmitted when a person inhales air contaminated with the virus, and in rare cases can be transmitted through an infected rodent bite.

NDDoH offers the following tips to prevent hantavirus infection when cleaning a building with signs of rodent attack:

• Ventilate the room by opening the doors and windows for 30 minutes before cleaning.
• Wear gloves and a disinfectant to cleanse dead rodents, urine, feces and nests.
• Saturate the material with a disinfectant. Soak it on the label according to the manufacturer's instructions before removing it.
• Clean the floors and clean desks, cabinets and drawers with disinfectant.
• Use a commercial disinfectant registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and follow the instructions on the label or use a bleach solution containing one part bleach and nine parts water (10% solution). %).
• Do not shake the dust by sweeping or vacuuming excrement, urine or nesting material.
• Do not allow children to play in crawl spaces or in unoccupied buildings where rodents may be present.

The symptoms of HPS usually begin two or three weeks after infection. The first symptoms are usually fever, muscle and body aches, tiredness, headache, dizziness, chills, nausea and vomiting. In a short time the symptoms will worsen and include coughing and shortness of breath when the lungs fill with fluid. People with HPS are usually hospitalized.

According to NDDoH, there have been 17 cases since 1993, when the virus was discovered in the United States. Eight were mortal. By 2017, 728 cases were reported nationwide, of which 36% resulted in death. More than 96% of the reported cases occurred in the states west of the Mississippi.

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