A fourth hantavirus case in Western Washington since fall, 2016 has been reported in Skagit county. Details are not yet available, but the patient is said to have survived and recovered. My best wishes go out to them for a full recovery.
Skagit county includes extensive terrain that resembles the foothills, big leaf maple tree mixed forest regions that characterized all three of the previous hantavirus infections in Western Washington since last November, 2016.
I will attempt to confirm whether, as I predict, there are big leaf maple trees in the immediate vicinity of the home of this fourth hantavirus victim. If so, confirmation of that prediction substantially advances the linkage between these cases and a deer mouse population explosion resulting from a "bumper crop" of big leaf maple seeds in summer, 2016, which provided an essentially limitless food source.
(This makes five hantavirus cases total in Washington, including the case in Eastern WA.)
– Mark@hantasite
Links:
King5 preliminary coverage
Kiro7 preliminary coverage
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