Wet Winter, Spring May Mean More Hantavirus Infections

CHEYENNE - At a test site in Arizona, mouse populations have increased six-fold over the previous year. In Colorado, as many as half of the mice in some locations tested positive for hantavirus. Wyoming is one of three states this spring to have recorded both hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in humans and an increase in plague among animals.

Researchers say a wet winter and spring across much of the West has resulted in higher rodent populations, which could mean more cases of rodent-borne diseases. And if the spike in human hantavirus cases in New Mexico and Colorado this year is cause for alarm, Terry Yates, a hantavirus researcher and vice president for research at the University of New Mexico, said the real danger could come next spring.

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