German authorities warn against hantaviruses. According to the Federal Office of Health in Baden-Württemberg, wherever voles, or small mouse-like rodents, live, an “extraordinary number” of people can contract this virus, which causes flu-like illness. Since the beginning of the year, 894 people have contracted the hantavirus in Germany.
Hanatavirus – what is this virus, what are the symptoms?
For comparison, 2019 cases of infections were reported during the most recent epidemic in 833. “In Baden-Württemberg, hantavirus infections are regularly occurring, and based on current figures, many people may be infected this year,” state president Wolfgang Reimer said on Wednesday.
In Germany, the main source of hantavirus infections is inhalation of dust from the excrement of red-backed voles (also known as forest vole). Rodents also shed the virus in saliva and urine. You can get infected with it when cleaning garages or sheds where these animals like to live.
Foresters, hunters and construction workers are particularly vulnerable to infection. But forest shelters and grill booths can also be dangerous for people.
Hantavirus disease usually has flu-like symptoms: high fever, headaches and aches in the extremities, and nausea and vomiting. But it can also affect the kidneys and lead to their acute failure. The disease is treated only symptomatically, there is no vaccine against it.
ship/kgod/PAP
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