On 3/8/25 7:42 AM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
Very rare but very lethal.
I've been snorting lines of mouse and packrat dust my whole life and never even knew someone personally who contracted hanta-virus (though plenty of anecdotal and high-profile stories like Hackman's wife). I've known a number of people who have been diagnosed with Lyme disease while living in an area with a much lower flux of ticks than mice. The former is highly lethal, the second can be life-changing debilitating and chronic (some folks' symptoms didn't really become pronounced for years after initial infection). NM is also known for high rates of bubonic plague (rodent vector), the ABQ science fiction (small) conference is known as "Bubonicon".
I have become much more careful (respectful) of mouse-droppings, etc as I've aged (and become more aware of my mortality as my vulnerability also rises). I don't look askance at people who choose to mask and carry a 10% bleach spray-bottle when they attack mouse-dropping detritus, though I do neither myself. I have to remind some of those very people that running their handheld or even shop-vac in that context is possibly the very worst thing they can do. Paradoxically, the most fastidious house-keepers may well be at the most risk if this is their method of keeping up with the invaders.
I *do* run a shop-vac when I do my twice yearly cleanout of my Yurt where the little buggers *are* known to take up residence if there is not enough human/pet activity to deter them ( I do use various deterrents such as cayenne, cinnamon, peppermint, pine oil, etc). But I do it in a wet context... spray down the floors, scrub with handled brush, wet-vac up the muck and then several rinse-passes. I *never* dry-vac (aerosolize the potential hanta-laden urine-dust) where rodents may have spent much time. My probability of contracting hanta has probably dropped a couple of orders of magnitude from the years when I took no precautions whatsoever. I don't ask anyone else to clean rodent-detritus for this very reason.
I was shocked to hear that the wife apparently died days before Hackman himself did. I've had two Alzheimer's father-figures over the decades and can imagine that he might well have functioned minimally for a week in that context. He was apparently not dehydraded, so was able to self-care to some extent. I was full-time caretaker for my own father for about 10 days less than a year before his final passing and I could have imagined him wandering the house alone for a week if my mother had passed without anyone else knowing. She had had to put escape-proof locks on the egress doors lest he go visiting the neighbors in the middle of the night (several incidents of such), it is possible the Hackman Residence had the same?
--- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sat, Mar 8, 2025, 7:30 AM Sarbajit Roy <[email protected]> wrote: Just saw news videos of Santa Fe county's medical examiner claiming the Hackman deaths were due to Hanta virus ? Just curious to know if Hanta virus is common in NM ? Or, is it some sort of cover up ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIcNMLepWuk Sarbajit Roy (India) .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoomhttps://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribehttp://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIChttp://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru presenthttps://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
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