Simi Man, 27, Is Ventura County’s 1st Hantavirus Case

In the first documented case ever in Ventura County, a 27-year-old Simi Valley man has contracted the potentially fatal hantavirus, public health officials reported Thursday.

The man was recovering Thursday after he was admitted to Simi Valley Hospital on May 17. He had been on a ventilator for more than a week after exhibiting several symptoms of the disease, officials said.

The man--whose name was not released--was conscious and breathing on his own Thursday, a sign he will fully recover, experts said.

“One day you’re at death’s door and the next you’re starting to breathe on your own,” said Dr. Curtis Fritz, an epidemiologist for the state Department of Health Services who is working on the case. “It’s all a reversible process if you don’t die.”

The man’s diagnosis, which was officially confirmed late Wednesday during laboratory tests done by Fritz’s office, marks the state’s fourth hantavirus case this year and the 29th since officials began tracking the infection in 1993. In 14 of the 29 cases, patients died.

Despite finding infected rodents in locations in Ventura County over the years, including at Wheeler Springs above Ojai, Montalvo in Ventura, Point Mugu State Park, and on forest land north of Santa Paula and Fillmore, this is the first known human case in the county.

The only case to be reported nearby occurred in Santa Barbara in 1992 when a man died after contracting the infection, Fritz said.

According to medical experts, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is contracted when a person handles infected rodents, usually deer mice, or inhales airborne particles from mouse urine, feces or saliva.

Robert Gallagher, a spokesman for the county’s Environmental Health Division, said the most common symptoms of the illness include shortness of breath, coughing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and muscle aches, often in the lower back.

The incubation period averages about six weeks before the illness progresses and may fill the lungs with fluid, causing death. There is no treatment other than a breathing machine.

County public health officials interviewed the Simi Valley man Wednesday and learned that he moved to the area about three months ago and had not left during that time.

Past field studies in the eastern portion of the county have uncovered infected rodents in the Wood Ranch area off Madera Road in Simi Valley, but it is unclear at this time where the man was infected.

Regardless, Gallagher said his office will begin trapping mice next week in the hills around Simi Valley and near Moorpark and the Tierra Rejada area to see if more infected deer mice exist.

“Now that we have this human case we are going to look a little more carefully than we did before,” Gallagher said Thursday.

Even if no additional infected mice are found--and that will be determined by blood tests to be done by the state--Gallagher said environmental health employees will begin going door-to-door today to tell people how to avoid exposure to infected rodents.

“It’s very important to get the public aware of the risks and let them know how to prevent exposure,” said Elise McKee, a county public health nurse whose office is working with county environmental health officials and who interviewed the Simi Valley man Wednesday.

Residents will be given pamphlets warning them to avoid settings, especially indoors, that are infested with wild rodents and not to touch rodents or give them access to food and water. Using poisons and traps on a limited basis around homes and sheds is also advised.

Infected rodents have been found in every county in the state, McKee said, and some studies suggest that up to 70% of the mice on Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and San Miguel islands carry the hantavirus.

California has the largest number of hantavirus cases in the country. Experts estimate up to 12% of all deer mice in the state are infected.