Diseases Spread by Mice and Rats Avoid touching your nose, ears, or mouth, and always wash your hands (even with protection) once you're done. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is a respiratory disease caused by stirring up air contaminated by rodent feces. (Avoid sweeping up droppings!)
However, old rodent feces dries out and releases particles into the air. Once the fecal particles become airborne, you can breathe them in and catch a serious disease or illness.
Although the length of time hantaviruses can remain alive and able to infect other people (infectious period) in the environment varies. The virus may remain infectious for 2 to 3 days at room temperature.
Discard any items that are no longer needed. Clean and disinfect any hard or nonporous items as recommended with a bleach solution or disinfectant. Follow recommendations for other materials like cloth and paper. Dispose of any cardboard boxes contaminated with urine or droppings.
Mouse droppings carry and can transmit several harmful diseases. Two of the most common illnesses are Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome and Salmonella. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) – This disease is particularly dangerous because it not only spreads through direct contact with rodent feces but also through the air.
If you find mice droppings in your house, you likely have a mouse infestation. Seeing one isolated dropping is a rare occurrence, and usually, you will find mouse droppings in places that indicate they are trying to nest or access your food.
People get HPS when they breath in hantaviruses. This can happen when rodent urine and droppings that contain a hantavirus are stirred up into the air. People can also become infected when they touch mouse or rat urine, droppings, or nesting materials that contain the virus and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth.
Although a rare occurrence, old mouse droppings may still contain traces of virus hantavirus. However, you should still exercise caution when cleaning or handling an infestation area. Mice can also carry other diseases with varying viability.
Native Australian rodents (for example Hopping Mice) pose little or no threat to public health and should be left alone as they are protected species. However introduced rodents may infest residential and agricultural areas and carry disease.
Hantavirus antibody-positive rodents have been found across Australia although, to date, there are no reports of infections in humans. This could be due to misdiagnosis clinically and/or inadequate laboratory technique/skills.
The risk of acquiring hantavirus is extremely rare, even among people who are consistently exposed to mice and other rodents. The majority of exposures (70%) occur around the home. Hantavirus poses no significant health risk to WSU employees provided that simple precautions are followed.
Early symptoms include fatigue, fever and muscle aches, especially in the large muscle groups—thighs, hips, back, and sometimes shoulders. These symptoms are universal. There may also be headaches, dizziness, chills, and abdominal problems, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
Mice poop a lot, and they poop just about everywhere, so seeing their droppings is usually a good sign that the rodents have taken up residence.
The colour depends on what the mice have been eating, but they are usually black or dark brown in colour. When mouse droppings get old, the colour appears more faded. When mouse droppings are fresh, they have a wet appearance. The moisture is evident on the surface.
Approximately 12 percent of deer mice carry hantavirus. The deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) is the primary reservoir for Sin Nombre Virus, the strain of hantavirus responsible for the human cases in Yosemite National Park, and most human cases in the United States.
House mice do not carry hantavirus.
Previous observations of patients that develop HPS from New World Hantaviruses recover completely. No chronic infection has been detected in humans. Some patients have experienced longer than expected recovery times, but the virus has not been shown to leave lasting effects on the patient.
The chance of being exposed to hantavirus is greatest when people work, play, or live in closed spaces where rodents are actively living. However, recent research results show that many people who have become ill with HPS were infected with the disease after continued contact with rodents and/or their droppings.
There are several ways mice can make you sick once they have made their way inside your home. Their urine and fecal matter can carry and transmit diseases such as the hantavirus, salmonella, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV).
What are the symptoms of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome? Symptoms begin one to eight weeks after inhaling the virus and typically start with 3-5 days of illness including fever, sore muscles, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. As the disease gets worse, it causes shortness of breath due to fluid filled lungs.
A common misconception is that mice are only attracted to dirty places or areas with lots of trash, that is not the case. In fact, mice are explorers who go around looking for any source of food they can find. Just because your home is clean, doesn't mean you're protected from a mice infestation.
There are multiple ways mice can get into your home. They can enter through gaps in your basement and doorways, tiny holes around piping, damaged roofs, air vents, and drain pipes just to name a few.
Mice need a place to nest and nearby food in order to survive and multiply. In a context where you abruptly remove the food, the environment would suddenly not be able to sustain such a large number of mice; therefore, mice would look for more favourable environments and many, if not all, would leave.