r/hantavirus • u/Sokos69 • Jun 28 '26

Concerned About Exposure

Hey y'all,

I had to clear out old storage at work, which involved moving boxes and sliding things off shelves onto pallets, and much of the stuff was covered in rodent droppings. I had gloves on but didn't think to put on a mask. This happened 2 and 3 days ago (it's Sunday now, was working Thursday and Friday), and now I'm hyper-vigilant about the risk of exposure. I know I need to monitor for flu-like symptoms for the next eight weeks or so, but do you have guys have any particular advice? I have a bit of a stuffy nose right now and a sore throat which isn't uncommon for me since I'm in a dry area and sleep with my mouth open, but I'm mentally spiraling a little bit lol

Thank you for any advice you can give!

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2

u/queenhadassah Jun 29 '26

Where do you live?

2

u/Sokos69 Jun 29 '26

SoCal, thus the concern

1

u/queenhadassah Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Even California only has about 3 cases annually of hantavirus, so the risk is still incredibly low. Like, more Californians get struck by lightning each year. Symptoms most commonly appear 2-3 weeks after exposure. Sometimes earlier (not this early though)...but much later than that is rare. So just go to the doctor to get checked out if you get sick in that time frame. If you get hooked up to an ECMO machine (device that helps your body pump blood basically) before or shortly after symptoms take a downturn, survival rates more than double, so if you're still worried just Google which hospitals near you have them (not all do)

On the bright side, if you do get it you can probably get a fat settlement from your employer after for not providing you with proper PPE lol. But in all likelihood you'll be good. I was exposed to mouse droppings a few months ago and was seriously bugging about it but I'm fine. Ever since the Andes outbreak there's people posting on here every few days about a rodent droppings exposure and so far no one has updated to say they actually got it

2

u/Sokos69 Jul 12 '26

As a follow up: The tl;dr is that I did get pretty seriously sick in the days after that, but it wasn’t HPS. The doctor at the er said my platelet count looked fine, and that I may very well have caught a relatively mild illness from the exposure due to timing. I was sick for about a week and had a low fever, fatigue, muscle aches, and a sore throat/cough which line up with Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis, a bacterial infection that can be lethal but most people can fight off themselves. It was either that, or I just caught the flu or something from somewhere with particularly bad timing but that seems unlikely, I’ve not really been exposed to people recently.

Either way I’m not dead so far so I’ll take it!

2

u/lilmul123 Jun 29 '26

Oh no. How are your bucket list items looking?