Scared about hantavirus

[ScaredyCat91]

Hello all,

I deal with generalized anxiety and usually it manifests itself into health anxiety.

Recently when I was at work I had to go up in a storage space area and put some uniforms away. When I got up there I noticed there were mouse traps set and they weren't triggered but it immediately got my mind rolling on hantavirus.

When I was putting then uniforms away I noticed behind me a silver fool tray thing and it had a bunch of mouse poop on it. I talked to one of my co workers and he said he knows what I'm talking about and that it's been there for a long time.

My rational side is telling me I didn't touch it. I didn't sweep it up, it's probably too old etc. My anxiety mind will just remind me randomly throughout the day that I could have somehow breathed it in and gotten hantavirus.

Please tell me someone else has been here before..

[Fishmanpa]

Scroll down to the bottom of the page or do a search. There are pages of posts on this.

Positive thoughts

[ScaredyCat91]

Believe it or not I have read all of them. They are very helpful in realizing how silly the fear is. I guess I'm trying to reach out on how people got over this sort of thing..

[Fishmanpa]

Believe it or not I have read all of them. They are very helpful in realizing how silly the fear is. I guess I'm trying to reach out on how people got over this sort of thing..

Apparently, all that posted about it did ;) Why not send a PM?

Positive thoughts

[ScaredyCat91]

Good idea, fishmanpa ;)

[lofwyr]

I live in the heart of hantavirus country in New Mexico. I mean, not terribly far from where the first case was diagnosed. There are tons of rodents in my area. Let me put some anecdotal information out there for you.

I have lived here a long time and have never even heard of one case in anyone I know. Not one.

There have only been 149 cases in New Mexico between 1975 and 2018. That is just over three cases per year.

In that same time, there have been more cases of bubonic plague in New Mexico, I know a person who has had it, and no one is worried about that.

Seriously, it kills, on average, around 10 people in the US per year.

Some other things that kill that few people a year, vending machine accidents claim an average of 4 people a year, and if you live where it is beautiful all the time, be careful because falling coconuts kill an average of 80 people per year.

On the other extreme, we usually aren't too scared of stairs. 12,000 people fall fatally down stairs each year in the US.

Put it in perspective, your odds of dying from hantavirus, or even being exposed to it, are virtually nonexistent.

Try and keep your fear and risk in perspective. We will all die, some day. That is undeniable. But the press makes a massive mountain out of hantavirus. Any new case that proves fatal, especially in someone young, draws media attention. They make it sound a lot more deadly and common than it really is.

[ankietyjoe]

Forgetting all the statistics and odds, how do you (the OP) even know what the hantavirus is, and how it's transmitted?

[ScaredyCat91]

First I want to say thank you for the stats. You threw a couple of good ones out there that do indeed really make this seem quite ridiculous.

I know about it because I worked for the national Park service in Arizona where it is a little more prevalent but still really uncommon. We have information sheets posted up at the office educating people about it.. and of course me being a health anxiety freak now any time I see mouse poop I just get this terrible feeling. I know it's irrational, and sometimes it will leave my mind. I'll be doing something simple like biting into a burger and it'll just pop back in my head. So sinister.

[ScaredyCat91]

Just frustrated. The worry is so stupid. And the worry creates symptoms like it gave me a headache. My face felt all warm, no temperature, my legs feel heavy. It's so stupid and frustrating. My fiance can tell something is wrong. She knows how I get and I hate how it affects our relationship... Anxiety sucks.

[inogerp]

Hi there - I found this thread because I recently was exposed to a mouse or rat here in Southern CA and am very paranoid that it could have been infected and that I will get the disease. So it is common to encounter mice in NM and no one you know has contracted it? I know NM had more cases than we did in CA so I just wanted some reassurance on the rarity of it . Thank you.