Summertime mosquitoes and mice are cause for diseases

Take precautions

County officials want the public to know that with the good times of summer comes the threat of infectious diseases, and the receding winter snows have created the perfect opportunity for a couple of the county’s least loved species to spread them around.

“We’re most concerned with the hantavirus,” says Carol Worrall, the county’s immunization and children’s health specialist. “We see that as the most imminent threat.”
Already this year there have been four confirmed cases of hantavirus in Colorado, according to John Pape, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment epidemiologist who specializes in animal-related diseases. “We are up to four reported cases in 2008, including one fatality,” he said.
During the first week of June, two people were infected with hantavirus in Dolores and Delta counties; both were hospitalized but are now recovering. Two cases were also reported earlier in the year, one in Fremont County in early May, and the other in February in Kiowa County that proved to be fatal.
“We’ve had three cases over the last few years,” says Health and Human Services program director, Randy Morgan. “The last case of hantavirus in Gunnison county was in 2005.”
Hantavirus is shed from an infected rodent through urine, droppings or saliva. Humans can then contract the virus by inhaling the airborne particles, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Pape urged people to be particularly careful where there are mouse droppings and evidence that mice have been in and around the buildings or nearby wood or junk piles. A large, rapid increase in the number of mice around a home often precedes a human hantavirus case and should be considered a red flag.
“This year’s heavy snowpack has provided moisture for ample vegetation that provides food for rodents, and often results in a large jump in both mouse populations and infection rates,” said Pape. “May, June and July are the months when most of our human cases occur. Before people begin cleaning structures that have been closed up all winter, they need to take precautions if there are accumulations of mouse droppings and other signs of mice.”