New research from a Saskatoon-based infectious disease lab is examining the difference in the immune response between humans and rodents to identify a treatment for hantavirus.
Concern about the virus has increased after an outbreak was confirmed on a cruise ship. The World Health Organization is tracking exposure among passengers who boarded the ship on April 11 in Argentina. Three people have died as a result of the outbreak.
Deer mice are the primary carrier of hantavirus, according to Dr. Bryce Warner, a scientist with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan. But other rodents can carry the infection as well.
“When deer mice are infected with the virus, they don’t get sick,” Warner told Global News. “They don’t show any clinical signs of illness. And so they carry it for life and they don’t seem to be harmed at all, which is obviously different from when humans become infected.”
Symptoms of hantavirus include tiredness, dizziness, fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and coughing, according to Health Canada. As the disease progresses, it can cause shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
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Warner said the risk of contracting hantavirus is low, but without treatment, it is often fatal.
In Canada, approximately five to 10 cases are reported in humans each year, he said, with the majority in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Health Canada said approximately 40 per cent of these cases end in death.
The research being undertaken at VIDO is exploring the differences between how the immune systems of deer mice and humans respond. Warner said the goal is to identify biomarkers that could potentially be targeted with a treatment or therapy.
“We’re in the very early stages of that project right now,” he said.
What that treatment could look like is currently unknown. There are no approved vaccines for hantavirus in Canada or across the Americas.
“A couple of vaccines have gone through early clinical trials, but there hasn’t been much progress there,” Warner said. “My lab here at VIDO is working on one or two approaches and we’re in early clinical trials or pre-clinical studies right now. We’re hoping that one of those can lead to something.”
Warner said there are vaccines in use in China and South Korea, but they target different strains of the virus that are not present in the Americas.
While researchers work on treatment approaches, Warner said there are measures people can take to help reduce the risk of infection. He said the virus sheds periodically in rodent urine, feces and saliva. When cleaning out an area like a garage where rodents have been living, the virus can become airborne and breathed in.
“Really, the risk prevention there is to be aware of it and air out those spaces and use a disinfectant, wear a mask, wear gloves when you’re cleaning those spaces if you know you have a rodent infestation,” he said.
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