Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffHantavirus pulmonary syndrome is an infectious disease characterized by flu-like symptoms that progress rapidly to potentially life-threatening breathing problems.
Several types of hantavirus can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. They are carried by several types of rodents, particularly the deer mouse. You become infected primarily by breathing air infected with hantaviruses that are shed in rodent urine and droppings.
Because treatment options are limited, the best protection against hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is to avoid rodents and their habitats.
- Dermody TS. Infectious diseases and their etiologic agents. In: Mandell, GL, et al. Mandell, Bennett, & Dolin: Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2005:2086.
- Shafts C. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2008: 380.
- Brown D, et al. Zoonotic viruses. In: Cohen J, et al. Cohen & Powderly: Infectious Diseases. 2nd ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2004:2095.
- Hantavirus infection. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec17/ch198/ch198j.html. Accessed Dec. 21, 2008.
- Hjelle B. Epidemiology and diagnosis of hantavirus infections. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Dec. 21, 2008.
- Hjelle B. Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Dec. 21, 2008.
- All about hantaviruses: How do I prevent HPS? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hanta/hps/noframes/prevent.htm. Accessed Dec. 21, 2008.
- Steckelberg JM (expert opinion). Mayo
