WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Health officials are reporting the Navajo Nation's first case this year of of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings.
The tribal health department said the case was confirmed in McKinley County in northwestern New Mexico but it wasn’t known how the person contracted Hantavirus.
Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas. Recommended precautions to limit the spread of Hantavirus include ventilating and cleaning areas where they might be mouse droppings.