Vaccinate domestic animals against wildlife-transmitted diseases like rabies and Lyme disease. Contact your physician for human vaccination recommendations. Table I. Wildlife diseases that affect humans. Wild rodents, rabbits, hares, carnivores, birds, hoofed animals Mild to severe. University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension.
Commensal rodents are Norway rats, house mice and others that commonly invade homes.
In the U.S., people exposed to the virus develop respiratory problems that may lead to death. Flu-like symptoms of fever, chills, muscle aches, cough, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and lower back pain occur within 2 to 3 weeks after exposure. HPS cases were first diagnosed in New Mexico during 1992. Incidence of hantavirus has been confirmed across a broad area of the western U.S., including Nebraska. In Nebraska there is recent evidence that 4 percent to 5 percent of mice have been exposed to the Sin Nombre virus.