It's spring cleaning time, the time of year when you roll up your sleeves and take mop, bucket and vaccuum cleaner out to your garage, shed or cabin to spruce things up.

That means it's also time for Alberta Health Services to remind Albertans to take some simple precautions to protect themselves from hantavirus.  Dr. Judy MacDonald, AHS Medical Officer of Health says the warning happens with the time of year.  "This is the time of year when people may be getting into their cabins, wood sheds, various places and cleaning up, so there's the potential to be exposed to hantavius especially if there's been mice or mice droppings in any of those areas."

Hantavirus is a potentially fatal illness that affects the lungs/respiratory system that's caused when humans inhale particles of urine or feces from an infected rodent, which becomes airborne when disturbed.  MacDonald says deer mice are the biggest culprits, but they're not the only carriers of the disease.  "It's not only deer mice, there's been studies that have shown that pack rats, chipmunks and some other wild rodents have anti-bodies to hantavirus, so they've obviously been exposed, but it's the deer mice that are the main concern."

AHS has some advice that, if followed, will greatly reduce your risk of contracting the disease while you're cleaning up in areas of mice or droppings.  

-  Open doors and windows for ventilation and keep out of the area at least 30 minutes before starting cleanup.  

-  Wearing rubber gloves, thoroughly soak the area with a nine parts bleach, one part water solution and let it soak for five minutes.  Never disturb droppings, nests or dead mice before soaking with the bleach solution.

-  Mop up the bleach soaked items or pick them up with paper towels and put them in a plastic bag, seal the bag and put it in a garbage container with a tight fitting lid.

-  Wash your gloves before removing them, then wash your hands.  

Dr. MacDonald says if someone is infected with the virus it could take a week or two before symptoms manifest themselves.  "Those initial symtoms might be non specific.  You might have fever, you might have some chills, some muscle aches and pains and just not feeling very well.  That could last for a week or so and then you start to develop the more severe respiratory or lung symptoms that include cough and you become very short of breath and you can actually develop a very severe lung dysfunction in that time frame."

Between 2014 and 2016 there were 11 confirmed cases of hantavirus in the province.  Of those cases, one was fatal.  

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