Sweeping can stir up virus-laden dust particles. Instead, the area should be sprayed with a mix of bleach and water. Since transmission usually occurs through inhalation, it is easiest for a human being to contract hantavirus within a contained environment, where the virus-infected particles are not thoroughly dispersed. Being in a small house, a crawl space, or a barn where rodents can be found poses elevated risks for contracting hantavirus. The environments that provide the greatest risk are unoccupied buildings, such as an abandoned house, a cabin, or the tool shed in your back yard.
Rodents can thrive in such places, especially in cold weather.
Those mice that never went in the house had a lower infection rate of 18 percent, Douglass said. His findings also suggest that male mice are more likely to carry the virus, sometimes at a rate as high as 40 percent. Here we have a situation with a dangerous disease that occurs in a country with funding for research, in an animal we know well. The Mouse in the House Study will continue for the next six months. All Rights Reserved.