Public Health Division, Region 5

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Region 5 News

Serious Disease Can Be Prevented with Simple Precautions

(Las Cruces) -- Summer is quickly approaching, which means it is once again time for the New Mexico Department of Health to remind people to take precautions against two serious, but easily prevented diseases: plague and Hantavirus.

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a severe respiratory illness that can be deadly. People can become infected and develop the disease from Hantavirus when they breathe in aerosolized virus particles that have been transmitted by infected rodents through urine, droppings or saliva. The deer mouse is the main reservoir for the strain of Hantavirus that occurs in New Mexico, the Sin Nombre virus.

In 1993 New Mexico had an outbreak of Hantavirus with 18 cases and 10 deaths, mainly in the Four Corners area. Since 1975, there has been 90 Hantavirus cases in New Mexico, including 36 deaths.

Early symptoms of Hantavirus infection are fever and muscle aches, possibly with chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and cough which progresses to respiratory distress. These symptoms develop within one to six weeks after rodent exposure. Although there is no specific treatment for Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, chances for recovery are better if medical attention is sought early.

Plague is a bacterial disease of rodents and is generally transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, but can also be transmitted by direct contact with infected animals, including rodents, wildlife and pets. Although plague is a rare disease, about half of U.S. cases each year occur in New Mexico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 1949, there have been 264 cases of human plague in New Mexico.

Symptoms of plague in humans include sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, and weakness. In most cases there is a painful swelling of the lymph nodes in the groin, armpit or neck areas.

Read more about Hantavirus

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