The virus is mainly transmitted to people when they breathe in air contaminated with the virus. This happens when fresh rodent urine, droppings or nesting materials are stirred up. Researchers believe that you may be able to get the virus if you touched something that had been contaminated with rodent urine, droppings or saliva, and then touched your nose or mouth. Researchers also suspect that if virus-infected rodent urine, droppings or saliva contaminates food that you eat, you could also become sick. That is another reason why disinfecting rodent-infested areas is so important in preventing transmission of the virus.
Transmission can happen anyplace that infected rodents have infested.
Therefore, the most sensible way to avoid contact with rodents is to prevent rodents from infesting the places where you live and work, and to follow safety precautions if you do stumble into a rodent-infested area. For example, you cannot get the virus from touching or kissing a person who has the disease, or from a health care worker who has treated someone with the disease. Finally, you cannot get the virus from a blood transfusion in which the blood came from a person who came down with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and survived. This would include farm animals like cows, chickens or sheep and insects like mosquitoes. Dogs and cats do not carry the virus, but they may bring infected rodents into contact with people if they catch infected rodents and carry them home.