CDC answers your questions about
HANTAVIRUS
Public Information Area
Part Two:
Who Is at Risk of Getting HPS
and Why?
What Are the Symptoms of HPS
What Is the Treatment for HPS?
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Who Is at Risk of Getting HPS, and Why?
It started in the Southwest, but it's NOT an "Indian disease"
You can be old or young, male or female, of any race, living anywhere in almost any part of the Americas. Healthy, active people are more likely to become infected because it's their activities that put them in contact with the virus. By the way, you cannot get HPS from another person.
What kind of activities are risky?
Anything that puts you in contact with rodent droppings, urine or nesting materials. That would include such activities as opening up cabins and sheds or cleaning outbuildings that have been closed during the winter—such as barns, garages or storage facilities for farm and construction equipment. Both activities mean you may directly touch rodents or their droppings and/or "stir up the dust" and when you touch or inhale them, you're at risk.
Hikers and campers can also be exposed when they use infested trail shelters or camp in other rodent habitats.
Construction and utility workers can be exposed when they work in crawl spaces under houses or in vacant buildings that may have a rodent population.
Cleaning in and around your own home can put you at risk if rodents have made it their home, too. And many homes can expect to shelter a few rodents, especially when the weather turns cold.
Overall, the chance of being exposed to hantavirus is greatest when people work, play or live in closed spaces where rodents are actively living. But, and this is important: recent research results show that many people who have become ill with HPS got the disease after having been in frequent contact with rodents and/or their droppings for some time. In addition, many people who have become ill reported that they had not seen rodents or their droppings—at all. Therefore, if you live in an area where the carrier rodents like the deer mouse are known to live, do take sensible precautions before you do activities like those described above—even if you don't see any rodents or their droppings.
Summing up: Conditions that put you at risk
The early symptoms
Early symptoms include fatigue, fever and muscle aches, especially the large muscle groups—thighs, hips, back, sometimes shoulders. These symptoms are universal.
There may also be headaches, dizziness, chills and/or abdominal problems, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. About half of all HPS patients experience these symptoms.
How long could it be between the time you get the virus, and the time you start showing these symptoms? Because there have been so few cases of HPS, it isn't quite clear what this "incubation" time" is. However, it appears right now that it may be between one to five weeks after you are exposed to potentially infected rodents and the rodents' droppings before you will show any symptoms.
Also remember this: from the data CDC Special Pathogens Branch keeps on all cases reported of HPS, it appears right now that many people who have become ill were in a situation where they didn't see rodents or rodent droppings. Other people have had frequent contact with rodents and their droppings before becoming ill. This makes pinning down the time when the virus was transmitted very difficult to do.
Late symptoms
4 - 10 days later. Symptoms include coughing and shortness of breath, with the sensation of, as one survivor put it, a "tight band around my chest and a pillow over my face" as lungs fill with fluid.
What symptoms aren't common?
Earache, sore throat and rash are very uncommon.
Summing up: These are the symptoms of HPS
What Is The Treatment for HPS?
At the present time, there is no specific treatment for the hantavirus infection. However, we do know that if the infected individuals are recognized early and are taken to an intensive care unit, some patients may do better. In intensive care, patients are intubated and given oxygen therapy to help them through the period of severe respiratory distress.
The earlier the patient is brought in to intensive care, the better. If a patient is experiencing full distress, it is less likely the treatment will be effective.
Therefore if you have been around rodents and have symptoms of fever, deep muscle aches and severe shortness of breath, see your doctor immediately. Be sure to tell your doctor that you have been around rodents—this will alert your physician to look closely for any rodent-carried disease such as HPS.
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1999, Special Pathogens Branch
Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases
National Center for Infectious Diseases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services