Live Hantavirus is supported by more than 30 small mammal species from New Mexico

Since 1993, when a deadly disease -outbreak in the four corners for the first time revealed the presence of Hantavirus in Noord -America, New Mexicans have been warned to be looking for deer mice, who can accommodate the microbe and can spread through their drops.

Some human cases, usually with severe cardiopulmonary symptoms, usually occur every year in New Mexico – almost all in the northwestern quadrant of the state – and even with advanced treatment, around 35% of patients die.

But now researchers from the University of New Mexico have discovered that more than 30 species of rodents and other small mammals that are endemic for the southwest, wear the virus, including land cracks, chipmunks, goophers, rats and even house mice.

In A study published in PLOS -System WarmersA team led by Steven Bradfute, Ph.D., a associate professor in the Center for Global Health within the Internal Medicine department of the UNM School of Medicine, reported that genomic material of the Sin Nomre Virus – the current Hantavirus -Stame in the US was between 2019 and 2023.

The most likely way in which people get infected is when they breathe in to aerosolized droppings excreted by the animals, he said. To determine whether species other than deer mice could spread the disease, the team was able to isolate alive Hantavirus from their salivary glands and lung tissue.

“There are many deer mice and they wear the virus, but there are many other rodents that also wear the virus and they can throw a living virus,” said Bradfute. “So they are also very potential vectors.”

A puzzle that still has to be resolved, he said, is why the reported human Hanta virus cases in New Mexico remain concentrated in the Four Corners region, although mammals elsewhere in the state are now wearing the living virus.

“One possibility is the genetic sequence of the virus is different in the northwest, versus the southeast,” said Bradfute. “We are busy testing that, although the Hantaviruses are notorously difficult to sequence. Our provisional results do not suggest that there is a huge difference between the different regions, but we still have to wait until the entire series is completed.”

Another possibility is that there are cases in the southeast of New Mexico, but they are just not recognized, he said.

“We look at that question by looking at antibodies in people from different regions. We have just started a project with it, but we don’t have the data yet.”

Moreover, there can be something about the viral transfer of rodents to people who are more efficient in northwestern New Mexico than in the southeast, said Bradfute.

“That can be due to how well the particles are aerosolized and how stable the virus is. I think that is plausible because it is geographically very different in those two areas.”

It may also be the case that rodents simply wear higher levels of the virus in the northwest versus the southeast, he said.

“We went to look at that, and what we see are in the regions where there have been, there are some animals that have really high viral loads.”

Hantavirus recently made international headlines when it was determined to have caused the death of Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, in their house in Santa Fe. The tragedy underlines the need to take precautions when entering enclosed or unbridled spaces, especially in the spring and summer months as small mammals multiply, Bradfute said.

“The incubation period from the moment you are exposed to the time that you have symptoms is usually at least one or two weeks and can take as long as eight weeks,” he said. Early symptoms mimic the flu or Covid, but after a few days it is not uncommon to develop a serious shortness of breath and extreme exhaustion.

“That’s when you’re in a danger zone,” said Bradfute.

In the absence of effective antiviral drugs, medical treatment consists mainly of trying to manage disease symptoms, he said. Sick patients are often placed on extracorporal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines that take over from the heart and lungs to give the body time to combat the infection. Bradfute and his colleagues are part of an attempt to develop monoclonal antibody treatments, which have so far been protective in animal models.

For now, the best strategy is to prevent him from being infected in the first place, he said. People who come across excrement against rodents must wear a well-fitting N95 or KN-95 mask and gloves and spray the droppings with a 10% bleaching solution while the affected area thoroughly ventilates.

“When you clean up, you must use paper towels and not do things that generate aerosols, such as sweeping or using a vacuum.”

The good news is that unlike SARS-COV-2, the sin Nombre Hantavirus is not spread from person to person, and it does not survive for long in the open air or when it is exposed to sunlight.

“What I try to tell people is that it is good to be careful, but don’t worry about things,” said Bradfute. “Take precautions when you can, but luckily the transmission is now quite rare.”