For a few weeks in Slovenia, more precisely in the area of Tarnova and Aidussina, on the border with Friuli Venezia Giulia, there are several cases of hantavirus infection, also known as “mouse fever“. A case was also registered in Italy: it is a Slovenian citizen who lives and works near the Italian border and who presented himself to the emergency room of Gorizia. His condition, according to what was reported by the ‘Corriere della Sera’, would not be serious.
What is mouse fever or hantavirus infection
Hantavirus infections are particularly common in rural areas.
The virus is transmitted by small rodents, which eliminate it through the disastrous and theurine.
Man can be infected by inhaling the virus released by rodent excrements, touching the contaminated ground or more rarely with the bite of the rodent itself, thus coming into direct contact with the saliva.
One of the ways to get infected, for example, is by cleaning one cantina with a broom and dispersing the tiny virus particles from the infected rat’s droppings into the air (once infected, the rodent releases the virus for life).
The groups most at risk are breeders e forestry.
The disease is not transmitted from human to human, but only from animal to human.
Hantavirus or mouse fever: how to avoid contagion
Per avoid contagion, the Ministry of Health recommends avoiding exposure to rodents and their droppings, washing hands often, not sitting on the ground in contaminated areas and wearing a mask when cleaning those areas, paying particular attention not to disperse aerosols.
Hantavirus or mouse fever: symptoms
I symptoms of hantavirus are high fever, headache, chills, abdominal pain, conjunctivitis, flushing of the face, respiratory disorders.
Generally, the infection lasts 2 to 4 weeks but, if neglected, it can lead even serious complications, come epidemic nephropathy, bleeding e pulmonary syndromes.
Hantavirus or mouse fever: the cures
Although there are no specific treatments or ad hoc vaccines, there are antiviral drugs capable of reducing illness and death associated with hantavirus infection.
Virgil News | 06-20-2021 11:49
Photo source: ANSA
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