A suspected case of hantavirus is being investigated in Ontario County.
According to the county’s health department, the individual’s potential exposure was local and there is no connection to the deadly and widely reported outbreak on the M-V Hondius cruise ship.
Hantavirus is spread via mouse and rodent droppings that can become aerosolized during cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming.
Public health officials said this case presents no risk to the public. But they advised residents to wear masks and protective gear like gloves when cleaning attics, sheds and cabins this spring. Wash your hands and clothing afterward, too, they said in a statement.
Such infections are uncommon in New York, officials said, with only “a handful of cases since reporting became mandatory in 1995.”
There are several types of hantaviruses, health officials said, and those that have been found in the United States cannot be spread from one person to another.
Only one type of hantavirus, known as the Andes virus, has been known to spread in this way, and this is the strain that affected passengers on the cruise ship.
