Immunohistochemistry (IHC) IHC testing of formalin-fixed tissues with specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies can be used to detect hantavirus antigens and has proven to be a sensitive method for laboratory confirmation of hantaviral infections.
Blood tests can reveal if your body has made antibodies to a hantavirus. Your doctor may order other laboratory tests to rule out other conditions with similar symptoms.
Indications for Testing
Individuals with symptoms of hantavirus infection and a history of exposure to a rodent or its droppings, urine, or nest, should be tested for confirmation.
Hantavirus infection can have no symptoms or cause mild to severe illness. Fever is the most common symptom in all three types of disease and lasts about 3-7 days.
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.
Early symptoms include fatigue, fever and muscle aches, especially in the large muscle groups—thighs, hips, back, and sometimes shoulders. These symptoms are universal. There may also be headaches, dizziness, chills, and abdominal problems, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
The risk of acquiring hantavirus is extremely rare, even among people who are consistently exposed to mice and other rodents. The majority of exposures (70%) occur around the home. Hantavirus poses no significant health risk to WSU employees provided that simple precautions are followed.
Hantavirus antibody-positive rodents have been found across Australia although, to date, there are no reports of infections in humans. This could be due to misdiagnosis clinically and/or inadequate laboratory technique/skills.
If the initial symptoms are not connected to hantavirus exposure and are left untreated, late symptoms will onset rapidly. These symptoms include cough and shortness of breath, which are the result of leaky blood vessels and lead to collection of fluid in the lungs, bleeding and failure of the heart to pump.
Bishop, Calif., teen survives hantavirus infection with lifesaving treatment. Jordan Herbst recovering in the UC Davis Pediactrics Intensive Care Unit/Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
Of those who survive, most recover in 3 to 6 weeks, but recovery may take up to 6 months.
Survival of the virus for 2 or 3 days has been shown at normal room temperature. Exposure to sunlight will decrease the time of viability, and freezing temperatures will actually increase the time that the virus survives.
HPS is more common in South America than in North America. Cases have been identified in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia. Andes virus causes HPS in Argentina and Chile and is the only hantavirus known to have been transmitted from person to person.
Only some kinds of mice and rats can give people hantaviruses that can cause HPS. In North America, they are the deer mouse, the white-footed mouse, the rice rat, and the cotton rat. However, not every deer mouse, white-footed mouse, rice rat, or cotton rat carries a hantavirus.
House mice do not carry hantavirus. Other wild mice, like deer mice, can vector hantavirus, but are most often found in rural areas, the desert, and mountains and rarely invade inhabited human homes.
The majority of Hantavirus infections occur in males and in individuals between the ages of 20-40 4. Trappers, hunters, forestry workers, farmers, and military personnel have a higher risk of contracting the disease 2 4.
Anyone who comes into contact with rodents that carry hantavirus is at risk of HPS. Rodent infestation in and around the home remains the primary risk for hantavirus exposure. Even healthy individuals are at risk for HPS infection if exposed to the virus.
In addition, there are no reports of hantavirus infection in humans in Australia.
Hantavirus: Once thought to be rare this disease has been identified in rodents across Australia. This serious and potentially fatal disease is spread through inhalation of dust that contains urine, saliva, or droppings.
Can I Get Hantavirus From Old Mouse Droppings? The short answer is yes. But, it is very unlikely. There are typically less than five cases of Hantavirus reported each year, making it highly unlikely that you will contract this disease.
Every year, there are approximately 300 cases reported in the Americas. Hantavirus infections can be fatal. Fatality rates may reach up to 60%. There is no available treatment.
However, the virus is shed continuously from them: into the droppings and urine they leave around the room, and into their saliva, which dries on anything they have chewed, such as nesting material. Out in the environment like this, the virus can live for several days.
Hantaviruses infect people when they are inhaled. If the virus reaches your lungs, it can infect the cells that line the tiny blood vessels in the lungs, causing them to become “leaky.” The leaky blood vessels allow fluid to fill the lungs making it difficult to breathe.
The hantavirus is destroyed by detergents and readily available disinfectants such as diluted household bleach or products containing phenol (e.g., Lysol®).