Please Beware of Rodent Contamination

#38 2025 The Rowen Report

Dear Subscriber,

If you have been reading the news, you might have come across warnings about Hantavirus. This is a disease, amongst many other, carried by rodents and which are transmissible in rodent droppings and urine, and in your own home. It is spring now, and mice could be leaving your home for the warm weather and food abundance outside. But, as they do, they may leave behind a deadly risk. Actor Gene Hackman’s wife, who recently was found dead near her deceased husband, was found to have died from this virus.

I don’t need to get in to your risk of rodent infestation. It is real, and can occur no matter how clean you keep your home and property. I have a compost pile for my garden and I’ve seen a rat therein. Little I can do, except encourage the cats in the neighborhood to wait nearby.

I don’t like killing animals, but have no compunction to trapping vermin by any means. My own feeling is that if I get one in the house, it is likely to return if it survives my efforts to peacefully get rid of it, so I turn to lethal traps, and have no moral qualms. I don’t mess with them outdoors. That is their territory. But inside is mine, and places my wife and I at risk.

A mouse can squeeze through a ½ inch opening. Tell me there is not such mall access to enter your home. Not all rodents carry the pathogens, but if you are encountering rodents, or droppings or urine, you have to assume it is dangerous. Utah is issuing warnings about these risks and below you will find the state’s recommendations for how to deal with clean up.

I am taking preventive action as we have had rodents in some outdoor garden tool closets. They were properly cleaned out and traps left behind. A back garage had evidence of rodents. I trapped them with a conventional device. Our orchard helper got some rodent ultrasound devices and they run full time. Since then I’ve seen no activity, but I also leave pellets out for them to eat. These pellets, RatX, seem to have been very effective in enclosed areas on our property. I don’t want to leave the pellets outdoors for the non-rodent critters to ingest, though the company insists it targets rat and mouse digestive tracts.

My intention here is less on rodent control, which you can easily read about, but in assisting with your safety in dealing with possible disease exposure, especially hantavirus.

If you get sick shortly after dealing with rodent clean up, you need to be concerned. Hantavirus has about a 40% death rate, not too much less than Ebola. If you’ve been with me for years, you know that I traveled with friend Howard Robins to Africa in 2014 to take on Ebola. My research had determined that Ebola is a lipid enveloped virus and had thiol groups (SH) which were required for viral entry into cells. Many viruses have tis mechanism and if the thiol groups are oxidized, they lose infectivity. AI says this about hantavirus:

· Thiol-Reactive Compounds:

Studies have shown that treating virions with thiol-reactive compounds can reduce virus infectivity, supporting the role of thiol groups in hantavirus entry.

We know that sunlight (UV) and germicides (oxidants) like bleach inactivate viruses. One mechanism, involving my favored ozone, is as follows:

SH + SH + O₃ > S-S + H2O + O₂.

I thought this reaction with ozone would take out Ebola. I felt strong enough about it to risk my life at my own expense by going to Sierra Leone at the height of the epidemic. I will be telling the story on Friday at the front of the White House in Lafyette Park for a huge health gathering I mentioned in a very recent post. My partner, Dr. Robins, will be honoring me with his presence on the podium. I would be honored for any of you to come and mingle and meet with us.

Turns out that Hantavirus is not much different in structure. It has a lipid envelope with glycoprotein on its surface that has thiol groups, which in my opinion will be an Achilles heel to ozone therapy.

I have encouraged all of you to have a home ozone device to offer protection to you and family no matter the disease. Aside from ozone’s ability to reduce infectivity of the virus, ozone preconditions your body to be more resistant to most any threat. In fact, a just published report says that precondition rodents with rectal ozone, they will become resistant even to a deliberately inflicted heart attack.

If you don’t want, or cannot afford an ozone device, please consider keeping ozonated glycerin in your home. I believe it will offer similar protection and is essentially portable and stable ozone. I take 2 tsp daily (in divided doses). I do make it myself. Both PURO3 and Simply O3 have ozonated glycerin. Discount codes: Redwood for PURO3, and DRROWEN for Simply O3. A sister company of PURO3 is Promolife which carries what appears to be the most cost-effective ozone generator available at this time. There are competing reliable devices, but at a higher price. Southern Star makes a good machine and has ‘Orion’ as its discount code. Simply O3 also have ozone generators and the discount code DRROWEN will work for machines and accessories as for ozonated glycerin.

If I got sick after rodent exposure, I’d be on to ozone and/or OG post haste. And were I faced with rodent contaminations clean up, I’d precondition myself with rectal ozone and/or OG daily for several days. I cannot tell you what to do here, and cannot take any responsibility for legal reasons. However, please check in with a nearby oxidation therapy provider, and/or know where the closest one is in case. you are exposed to anything or are dealing with an active infection. These therapies are not contraindicated in any conventional treatment to infection, and, in my opinion, will make the conventional treatment much more effective.

Below is a worthwhile report which elaborates on rodent disease and clean up. Regardless, please be prepared to protect you and your family from disease. Hantavirus is not communicable between people. But obviously there are plenty of diseases that are.

To Your Excellent Health!

Robert Jay Rowen, MD

Garage mice are heading outside, may leave dangerous virus behind

Lois M. Collins

Mon, April 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM UTC

4 min read

As the weather warms, rodents that may have been seeking warmth in your garage, sheds and tall grass are likely scampering out. But they could be leaving something very dangerous behind.

Utah public health officials sent a warning to the media Monday about the dangers of the virus, along with instructions for how to safely clean out sheds, garages, cabins and other locations where mice might be.

Hantaviruses — a family of viruses — can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and hemorrhagic fever with kidney syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those two potentially serious illnesses can be deadly. And they’re caused by inhaling droppings, saliva or urine from infected rodents.

Betsy Arakawa is one of the best known cases of hantavirus; she died around Feb. 11 at the home she shared with husband Gene Hackman in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her cause of death was determined to be hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. For those who get the respiratory symptoms, an estimated 38% die.

Deer mice are the rodents most apt to spread the syndrome in the U.S.

Very serious illness

The CDC said symptoms start from one to eight weeks after someone comes in contact with infected rodent residues.

The early symptoms are somewhat flu-like, including fatigue, fever and muscle aches. Roughly half of those infected also get headaches, dizziness, chills and digestive issues like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Between four and 10 days after that, those people may experience coughing and shortness of breath.

While hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome from hantavirus is a much less common form of hantavirus than the lung-attacking version in the U.S. and is not usually found here, there is a version called Seoul hantavirus that circulates here.

The sometimes deadly disease is severe and affects the kidneys. Symptoms develop a week or two after exposure, though occasionally it can take up to eight weeks.

Initial symptoms are intense headaches, back and abdominal pain, fever, chills, nausea and blurred vision. The CDC said people may have flushing of the face, eye inflammation or redness or a rash.

Later symptoms include low blood pressure, lack of blood flow, internal bleeding and acute kidney failure, leading to severe fluid overload.

The CDC said recovery takes weeks to months.

Utah health warning

Cleaning those outdoor buildings takes some serious thought, because casual sweeping could stir up the virus-infected droppings, allowing people to breathe in particles. You can also be infected by a rodent bite and touching food or objects that have been contaminated by an infected rodent.

“Anyone who comes in contact with rodents that carry the virus is at risk,” according to Kacy Nowak, Utah Department of Health and Human Services epidemiologist.

Make sure you take precautions when you work in areas with potential rodent droppings and nests. Use a disinfectant spray on areas with droppings and wait 15-20 minutes before you clean. This will kill the virus and decrease your risk,” she said.

Besides cleaning areas with potential viral infection, the department warned of work-related exposures and encountering the virus during outdoor activities like camping and hiking.

Per the health department’s notice, “Although rare, hantavirus is fatal in about 60% of cases reported. Anyone who experiences early symptoms such as fatigue, fever, muscle aches and shortness of breath and has a history of rodent exposure should contact their health care provider immediately.”

Cleaning safely

Utah health officials say to follow these steps to prevent hantavirus:

• Air out closed-up buildings before you begin.

• Trap mice until you get them all.

• Clean up nests and droppings with a disinfectant (steps below).

• Do not sweep up droppings, as they can be stirred into the air and inhaled.

• Keep places where rodents nest, like hay, wood and compost, far away from your home.

• Eliminate junk piles.

• Don’t leave animal food and water where mice can indulge.

• Seal the holes inside and outside of your home.

Cleaning steps:

1. Put on rubber or plastic gloves.

2. Spray droppings, urine and nests with bleach solution or an EPA-registered disinfectant until it’s very wet and let it soak for five minutes or the time listed on disinfectant labels.

3. Use paper towels to wipe it up, then throw them in a covered garbage can that is emptied often.

4. Mop up the area with disinfectant, including cleaning all hard surfaces and the floor.

5. Take off the gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.

More information is available at http://epi.health.utah.gov/epi/diseases/hantavirus/.