SOUTH COUNTY : Mouse Hantavirus Threat Continues, Officials Warn

Health officials are reminding people in South County who find mice in or around their homes to use extra caution because two mice recently were found carrying a deadly strain of hantavirus.

The virus has killed 45 people nationwide.

The two latest mice with hantavirus in Orange County were trapped in the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park near Lake Forest and on the back porch of a San Juan Capistrano house, said James Webb, a vector ecologist with the Orange County Vector Control District.

“We’re concerned that deer mice are invading people’s back yards,” Webb said Friday. Webb said people who encounter mice droppings or carcasses should use sanitary means to remove them, and not stir up dust.

Dr. Hildy Meyers, an epidemiologist with the Orange County Health Care Agency, said people should wear gloves while using a solution of bleach and water to cleaning up mice feces or dead carcasses. Vacuuming or sweeping should be avoided, she said.

“The only value of this announcement is to remind people that hantavirus is still here,” Meyers said. “It should not cause people to panic.”

There are no documented cases of people contracting hantavirus in Orange County, Meyers said.

Statewide, six cases are known, and three of those people were believed to have contracted the virus in New Mexico and Washington state, Meyers said. The disease causes breathing difficulties and fills the lungs with fluid. It is fatal about 50% of the time.

Since June of last year, the county has been setting traps in various parts of Orange County to catch mice and test them for hantavirus.

Before the two latest finds, the most recent discovery of a mouse carrying the virus was in Irvine on April 29, Webb said.