Hantavirus in Southwest Anyone traveling to rural areas of the Southwest should take precautions against hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, an incurable virus that can kill within hours of infection. The CDC. has counted 106 cases, including 35 deaths since 1994. There have been three deaths in Colorado and New Mexico this year. All of the infections occurred in rural areas where the deer mice, which harbor the virus, live. People become infected when they inhale dust contaminated with mouse urine or feces.
Travelers can guard against hantavirus by staying away from the rodents, as well as their burrows.
It is recommended that campers use a tent with a floor and lock food in a cooler. If you camp in a cabin, open the doors and windows half an hour before going inside. Doing so will clear the air of the rodents' urine spray and kill the viruses. The same weather that has promoted hantavirus has caused a rise in plague in the Southwest. Though people tend to think of plague as a disease from the history books, there are usually about 10 to 20 cases a year, mainly in New Mexico and Arizona.