Yosemite extends hantavirus warning; 9th infection confirmed *** AD...

Added by mystery on October 11, 2012 at 9:48pm — No Comments

Yosemite extends hantavirus warning; 9th infection confirmed *** AD...

Added by mystery on September 29, 2012 at 8:30pm — 3 Comments

Yosemite extends hantavirus warning; 9th infection confirmed

Added by mystery on September 27, 2012 at 8:00pm — 2 Comment

***ADDITION***

Tracking a Mystery Disease: The Detailed Story of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS)

The "First"Outbreak

In May 1993, an outbreak of an unexplained pulmonary illness occurred in the southwestern United States, in an area shared by Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah known as "The Four Corners". A young, physically fit Navajo man suffering from shortness of breath was rushed to a hospital in New Mexico and died very rapidly.

While reviewing the results of the case, medical personnel discovered that the young man's fiancée had died a few days before after showing similar symptoms, a piece of information that proved key to discovering the disease. As Dr. James Cheek of the Indian Health Service (IHS) noted, "I think if it hadn't been for that initial pair of people that became sick within a week of each other, we never would have discovered the illness at all".

An investigation combing the entire Four Corners region was launched by the New Mexico Office of Medical Investigations (OMI) to find any other people who had a similar case history. Within a few hours, Dr. Bruce Tempest of IHS, working with OMI, had located five young, healthy people who had all died after acute respiratory failure.

A series of laboratory tests had failed to identify any of the deaths as caused by a known disease, such as bubonic plague. At this point, the CDC Special Pathogens Branch was notified. CDC, the state health departments of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, the Indian Health Service, the Navajo Nation, and the University of New Mexico all joined together to confront the outbreak.

During the next few weeks, as additional cases of the disease were reported in the Four Corners area, physicians and other scientific experts worked intensively to narrow down the list of possible causes. The particular mixture of symptoms and clinical findings pointed researchers away from possible causes, such as exposure to a herbicide or a new type of influenza, and toward some type of virus. Samples of tissue from patients who had gotten the disease were sent to CDC for exhaustive analysis. Virologists at CDC used several tests, including new methods to pinpoint virus genes at the molecular level, and were able to link the pulmonary syndrome with a virus, in particular a previously unknown type of hantavirus.

Continue reading at:  http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/history.html

Hantavirus

Infection with hantavirus can progress to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), which can be fatal. People become infected through contact with hantavirus-infected rodents or their urine and droppings. The Sin Nombre hantavirus, first recognized in 1993, is one of several New World hantaviruses circulating in the US. Old World hantaviruses, found in Asia, can cause Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS). Rodent control in and around the home remains the primary strategy for preventing hantavirus infection. All cases of Hantavirus infection are reported to and researched by the Viral Special Pathogens Branch (VSPB) of the CDC.

Continue reading at:  http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/

Continue reading at:  http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/08/hantavirus-climate-y...

Hantavirus scare puts ‘Hoarding’ home in lockdown

A home in The Woodlands remained under quarantine on Saturday as health officials wait for test results to confirm the presence of the deadly rodent-borne hantavirus.

Officials took the unusual step of closing the house on a small cul-de-sac in the 11000 block of Slash Pine Drive after a woman who had been helping clean the home for the TLC television show “Hoarding: Buried Alive” developed a respiratory illness, said Dr. Mark Escott, of Montgomery County’s deputy local health authority.

The female patient was treated at a hospital in Montgomery County, but specifics of her condition can’t be released, Escott said.

Montgomery County health officials plan to drive on Sunday to Austin with another sample from the house to test at a state laboratory. “We’re expecting that result will be positive,” Escott said of the report, which should be available late Monday afternoon.

Timely interruption

In the meantime, a sheriff’s deputy will remain stationed outside the home to keep people out of harm’s way.

The quarantine was timely and necessary, Escott said, because a clean-up crew was about to rip out the carpet in the home when he arrived Friday afternoon. “That could have resulted in significant exposure,” he said.

This year, Texas has seen about 35 cases of hantavirus, Escott said. The disease is fatal in 35 percent to 40 percent of cases, he said.

Continue reading at:  http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2012/09/hoarding-woodlands-home-in-...