The airmen thought the dead mice in their quarters at the Texas Army base were amusing.
The Air Force service members teased each other, accord-
ing to one airmans account, dangling or tossing the tiny corpses for laughs and joking about the mouse droppings.
Until a fellow airman died on Feb. 11.
An autopsy found he died from the deadly and rare hantavirus – a disease transmitted through the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents.
The military reported the cause of death Friday, withholding the mans name for privacy reasons and noting it was unclear where he contracted the virus.
A serviceman on base, communicating through a family member, confirmed the man was Leonard Hankerson Jr., a 24-year-old Arizona senior airman. Obituaries from earlier this month confirm Hankerson died while on temporary assignment at Fort Bliss near El Paso.
The cause of the airmans death shocked fellow service members at the base and theirfamilies.
One airman, a San Leandro native, called his mother over the weekend.
He told her he and his fellow airmen didnt know very much, except that additional service members were taken by ambulance to the hospital over the weekend and their status was unknown.
He said its just so weird because theyre there and they know nothing, the mom added. He said, Everybodys got a cold. Were all sick. Were all coughing.’”
Because the man is under orders not to discuss the situation, the mother did not want her or her son identified.
Clarence Davis III, a spokesman from the William Beaumont Army Medical Center where Hankerson died, said seven service members have been admitted to the center since Friday with symptoms of viral illness.
So far, four have tested negative for hantavirus, with results pending for the three others.
The former San Leandro man also told his mother hazardous material teams sprayed bleach around the base over the weekend.
In the Friday statement, Fort Bliss officials confirmed they are taking several precautions to ensure safety, including cleaning buildings that house military troops.
The hantavirus was identified in 1993, when an outbreak occurred in the Four Corners area of the United States. Since then, there have been 416 U.S. cases — about 20 to 30 per year, according to Abbigail Tumpey, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control.
The strain most commonly found in the this country is often called Sin Nombre — or the No Name virus, carried by the deer mouse. More than a third of those who contract it die.
Common disinfectants can kill the hantavirus, but if particles disperse — by sweeping up droppings, for example — they can be inhaled.
While the incubation period can last from a few days to several weeks, death is often swift. The Sin Nombre strain causes a pulmonary syndrome, in which the blood vessels leak fluid into the lungs so the victim cant breathe.
Tumpey said her agencys goal is to educate people about the virus and how to prevent contracting it.
Whenever there is a fatal case, it is very disheartening for us, she said, adding the death of the serviceman was particularly sad. This is just incredibly tragic.
The San Leandro airmans mom said she was frustrated at the apparent lack of instruction given to troops about the disease when they arrived at the base. She was also bewildered at the dearth of information after the death, including whether any testing was done to determine whether the virus was indeed found at the Fort Bliss base.
What if her son and his unit ship out to Iraq and dont know if they are carrying the virus, the mother asked.
The womans son told her Saturday that his whole unit is scared, not knowing who else is going to come down sick or just die.
He said they are trained to fight an enemy they can see, not some unknown illness, she added.
Her son started a 35-day training at Fort Bliss on Feb. 1. She said he is scheduled to deploy to Southern Iraq in mid-March for an expected six-month tour of duty, where his unit will guard a prison and conduct patrols.
The mother, a former San Leandro resident, said she already was worried about her son going off to war a second time, but she was prepared for that.
She wasnt prepared to worry about him while he was in Texas.
I totally support the war on terror. I know they train my son, they equip them and prepare them for war, she said. I never gave it a thought that my son would be in danger of dying on a U.S. Army base. I never gave it a thought.
Contact Jill Tucker at jtucker@angnewspapers.com.
c2006 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior
written permission.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Information provided by: Findarticles.com
