Three weeks later, he developed an obvious hantavirus pulmonary syndrome but survived and completely recovered. The virus was sequenced and proven to be a Sin Nombre strain, similar to the virus, which caused a large outbreak in New Mexico in 1993. The Iowa child is one of the youngest cases with severe pulmonary disease. Also interesting in Iowa are the relatively few cases of human hantavirus infection, since we now know that deer mice are infected with Sin Nombre virus. Assessments of occupational risks to agriculture workers have failed to define a specific circumstance which leads to transmission of hantavirus from mouse to human.
Most cases occur in the spring and summer.
Remember that the main clinical signs of acute hantavirus infection are abrupt fever with bilateral pneumonitis accompanied by decreased platelet count. All rights reserved.