Dr. Fred Koster, professor of medicine at the University of New Mexico health sciences centre, deals with treating living patients. The area serviced by Koster's facility has a rural population of about 100,000 people. The deer mouse does not enter the city, he said. We have cases in the Albuquerque suburbs. It's not a huge problem on a public health scale, but it is a problem.
People are concerned.
Nolte believes the illness has probably been around for a long time but has occurred so sporadically it hasn't been recognized. A man reported having a similar illness in the 1970s and was tested for antibodies specific to this type of hantavirus. The result was positive. About 70 to 80 per cent of the patients need to be on a ventilator because their lungs have filled up so severely with water, said Koster. While the mouse is infected with the virus for its lifetime, it is not known how long the virus is infectious outside the mouse's body.