Hantavirus is a type of virus that belongs to the family of Bunyaviridae, which includes several other viruses that can cause human diseases such as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Rift Valley fever and Lassa fever. Hantaviruses are found in many parts of the world and can be transmitted to humans through contact with the urine, feces or saliva of infected rodents, especially deer mice.
Firstly, let’s get a fair understanding of who poses the hantavirus threat. Rodents. It’s only rodents. You can only get the virus and the Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) from rodents, and not human beings. Accordingly, your home measure to avoid hantavirus can includes steps to ensure minimal exposure to rodents, and not other pests and organisms. Now that we know the main reason for the spreading of hantavirus, make sure all our home measures to implement to stop hantavirus revolve around rodents too. Ensure we don’t have an environment which suits rodents, both within the house as well as the immediate external surroundings.
If you have a history of rats and mice at home, go to the store and get some traps and baits immediately. As the name suggests, traps lure rodents into them and then shut them in, where they end up dying eventually. On the other hand, baits are lookalike-foods which when ingested will kill the rodents and any other rodents they come in touch with too.
If you wish to take matters in your own hands, go to the store and get chemicals like sprays or gels that can be used to kill rodents and rats. Make sure you buy chemicals that are labelled specifically for rodent use and not just a generic bug chemical, as the latter won’t be effective at all. You will end up just wasting your time and efforts. Secondly, make sure you’re using right equipment like gloves while applying the chemicals. Wash up when done and don’t leave the empty cans lying around as these chemicals could cause side effects and health hazards among family members.
Sometimes, it’s not your home but external factors that need help. There may be bad hygienic conditions outdoors, bad garbage disposal or improper drainage facilities which are proving to be perfect for rodents. In such cases, make sure you have all entry points to your home shut, first. Then, target the outdoors. If it’s too much to do by yourself, get society or government help for the same.
Similarly, make sure you’re maintaining the highest levels of hygiene at home. This could mean not allowing clutter of things, not allowing shelves and cabinets to be untouched for months, not letting food crumbs out overnight and much more. Rodents come home in search of food, water and shelter, so take action appropriately. If you don’t leave food out or garbage overflowing or cabinets dirty where they can take shelter, you won’t have many rodent issues in the first place. With our busy lifestyles, getting time to do clean-up at home may be difficult, but the lockdown period will give us the time to do so. For this task, there are professional ways of getting the job done too.
If you’re wondering how to protect yourself from hantavirus, it begins at home. Like we mentioned in different points above, getting rid of rodent exposure and maintaining home hygiene is important. Companies like HiCare do these tasks for a living. It’s not for no reason that we’re India’s most respect company when it comes to this. You can get these jobs done by just calling us on 08828333888 or visiting our website. From rodent control to deep cleaning, we undertake it all. The best part is that all our services and products come with warranties, so you’re protected even once the
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