Two Residents of San Juan County, New Mexico Contract Hantavirus

A 9-year-old boy and a 27-year-old woman from San Juan County, New Mexico, are on life support while battling hantavirus, a disease spread by deer mice and some other rodents. The Farmington DailyTimes reports that the boy, who is from Bloomfield,is being treated at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colorado, after being transferred from the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington. The woman, who is from Aztec, is at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. People are advised to be extremely careful when cleaning houses, barns and sheds, as disturbing rodent droppings can put the virus into the air.