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Center For Disease Control
Extensive info on hantavirus & prevention
June 5, 2000
There's yet another case of the deadly hantavirus here in Utah.
Experts say hantavirus likely killed a central Utah woman, last week. Now her son is battling the disease.
News Specialist John Daley reports from LDS Hospital.
Folks at LDS Hospital confirm that a man from Wellington, Utah, has been hospitalized--sick with hantavirus.
He's listed in critical condition.
An official at Castleview Hospital in Price tells us his name is Chris Dimick. He's the 23-year-old son of Cathleen Dimick, who died last week at LDS Hospital. The hospital officials also say that they've been informed one other family member may have contracted the disease.
The small rodent looks innocent enough, but looks can be deceiving.
In Utah, a third of all deer mice carry hantavirus, a disease that occasionally spreads to humans, generally someone who inhales dust from mouse droppings.
That's what state health officials believe happened last week.
Forty-seven-year old Cathleen Dimick of Wellington went to the hospital in Price with flu-like symptoms.
She was quickly flown by helicopter to Salt Lake City.
She died at LDS Hospital.
Exact same scenario today. But this time it's her 23-year-old son Chris.
He's now listed in critical condition.
Roughly 40% of the people who come down with hantavirus die from it.
Between 1959 and 1998 Utah had 13 cases. Four of them turned fatal.
The disease has mostly struck in rural central Utah.
Nationally, of 250 confirmed cases,
101 of them were fatal.
Health officials say the key to avoiding Hantavirus is to limit your contact with deer mice.
They live everywhere from lower elevation deserts to the high Uintahs, and their populations seem to be increasing. A mild winter has led to a boom in the deer mouse population.
State health officials say the best advice is to keep rodents out of your house or any other structure, whether it be a barn or a shed. Basically, just keep them away from your property.
And if you're cleaning up after them, wet the area down and be sure to avoid stirring up any dust, because it's the dust that can make you sick.
