By Zerline Hughes
Ventura County Star writer
Friday June 2, 2000A spokeswoman at Simi Valley Hospital said Thursday night a male patient with a confirmed case of the often deadly hantavirus disease was admitted early this week.
Spokeswoman Alicia Gonzalez said hospital officials have contacted the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to report the case.
Neither Gonzalez nor any other hospital officials could provide additional information about the case, including the man's condition.
Hantavirus is a relatively rare disease transmitted through the urine, feces and saliva of deer mice. It also can be airborne. The illness starts with flu-like symptoms and can progress to respiratory failure. It kills around 40 percent of those who contract it, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which has issued a national warning about hantavirus.
As of early May, 250 cases of the illness, officially known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, had been identified in 31 states since 1993, when the disease became highly publicized, though it is believed to have existed in this country since sometime in the 1970s. Authorities said 26 of the cases have been in California. The most recent death in California was in Kern County last year.
A mid-1990s study found that deer mice on several of the Channel Islands had the hantavirus antibody.
Over the Memorial Day weekend in 1999, a 7-year-old Oxnard boy visiting the Channel Islands with his family played with a mouse that later tested positive for the virus antibody but the boy turned out to be fine.
Safe and Humane Way to Remove Rodents One pair of rats can lead to 15,000 rats in one year as their offspring generate offspring of their own. Protect you and your family from rodent-borne diseases. Click here for information about the Ratzapper, a non-poisonous, humane way to get rid of rodents.
MultiScope
1135 N. Poinsettia Drive
Los Angeles, California 90046
Phone: (323)851-1878
Toll-Free Number: (888)246-8776
Fax: (323)212-4700
Email: mail11@multiscope.com
© 2010 Advin Systems
