THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 3, 1994 TAG: 9412030283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
A hiker on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia was infected by the same rodent-borne virus that killed 40 people in the Southwest last year, health officials have concluded.
It's the first time the mysterious disease has been detected in the mid-Atlantic region.
The North American hantavirus also has been found recently among small rodents in Shenandoah National Park and other rural parts of Virginia, according to the state's Department of Health.
Public health officials said an outbreak of the disease in the region is unlikely. But they are advising residents and tourists in rural areas to take special precautions when dealing with rodents, especially deer mice, which commonly spread the illness through their saliva, urine and droppings.
The disease, known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, is marked by respiratory failure from fluid buildup in the lungs.
Since it was recognized in the United States in June 1993, 99 cases - 51 of them ending in death - have been confirmed in 21 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although the death rate has dropped in the last year as doctors have become more adept at treating the symptoms, hantavirus remains the third most lethal virus in the United States, after AIDS and rabies.
The Southwest outbreak of mid-1993, concentrated primarily on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona, was fueled by a surge in the mouse population brought on by unusually wet conditions and an abundance of the rodents' natural foods. Since then, the number of cases each month has dropped; there have been about as many this year as in the last half of 1993.
The Virginia case is the fifth to be discovered east of the Mississippi River. The hiker, identified only as an Australian male in his mid-60s, was hospitalized in Chambersburg, Pa., in June 1993 with serious lung, kidney and liver complications, common symptoms of the virus.
The hiker made a full recovery, according to the Virginia Department of Health, but doctors were not able to confirm that his ailments were caused by the hantavirus until a few weeks ago, when the man returned to the United States and submitted a blood sample for testing.
Based on the most likely incubation period for the virus, doctors believe he contracted the disease in Giles County, Va., west of Roanoke, from sleeping in a wooden camping shelter along the Appalachian Trail. According to other hikers who frequent the 2,156-mile trail, many of the shelters are infested with rodents and their droppings.
The CDC, along with the National Park Service and state health workers, will trap and test rodents in Giles County next week. Other Virginia counties will be tested early next year, as will parts of Maryland and West Virginia. ``We're attempting to get a handle on how widespread this is,'' said assistant Virginia epidemiologist Suzanne Jenkins.
``We won't know until we do rodent trapping everywhere.''
Preliminary tests during the last year have found 14 rodents in Virginia with the virus, Jenkins said. by CNB