...and again.
I regret to post that yet another hantavirus case, a fatality, has occurred in Washington state. The victim in Spokane, WA, was a man in his 50's and was believed to have been contracted hantavirus in Adams county, the first such case on record.
This brings the 2016 – 2017 Washington state hantavirus toll to six cases since November, 2016 (my wife), only an eight month span of time. The mortality rate is now back up to 50%, which is an indication that contrary to what has recently been claimed by health authorities, care procedures for hantavirus patients have not improved in any statistically significant way since the very early days after the Sin Nombre hantavirus was first recognized in 1993. (The first recognized hantavirus cases were usually fatal. When supportive care was implemented, the mortality rate dropped to around 40% where it remains.)
This has to be regarded as at least a small outbreak, not just a cluster of cases. This state is averaging a new hantavirus case every 40 days.
The surge in deer mouse population that occurred last fall is likely to have been accompanied by a surge in the incidence of hantavirus among that mouse population. If the hantavirus is more common among deer mice, this state may have gone through a long-lasting increase in risk of contracting this often deadly disease.
–Mark@hantasite.com
Links
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jul/06/spokane-man-dies-from-hantavirus-after-likely-expo/
http://www.krem.com/news/local/spokane-county/spokane-co-man-dies-from-hantavirus-complications/454704432
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