Hantavirus
Learn more about the fatal Hantavirus.
Whats Happening today
People have started to take more caution in prevention of this disease by Avoiding rodent droppings and saliva and keeping their homes rodent free. But on November 1, 2012 Yosemite National park had an outbreak and 10 people were infected, 3 of which died.
Disease/Cause
The Hantavirus has no special name and originated from being called the Hantaan river virus to the Hantavirus. It is also caused by Aerosols in rodents excrement that are infected.
Incidence/Transmission
People that work around places with rodents have a higher chance of catching the virus than people that don't. This is because rodents are the main way that people get the disease but are not the vectors. When they poop particles of their excrement get into the air which are then breathed in by humans which is how we catch the virus.
Symptoms
The non severe symptoms include coughing and a fever but as the virus progresses it starts to fill your lungs with blood plasma and it causes liver failure. The virus also causes a lot of bleeding placing it in the hemorrhagic fever category. They start off like a flu but become worse over the next few months. The incubation is unknown but is believed to be 1-5 weeks after infection.
Prognosis/Treatment
The Hantavirus is a usually fatal disease but only infects around 40 Americans each year. We have a way to slow the progress of the disease by just using antiviral medicines which break it down as to not let it create a liver failure. We have found no way though to stop it from filling the lungs with blood plasma and choking you to death.
Citations
Bunch, Bryan H. "Hantavirus." Diseases. Vol. 7. Danbury, CT: Grolier Educational, 2006. 57-59. Print.
"Hantavirus." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2016. Web. 8 Feb. 2016. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/384501>
‘Southern Weld County man dies from hantavirus', 2015, Greeley Tribune (CO), 25 June, Newspaper Source, EBSCOhost, viewed 8 February 2016.