{"id":5626,"date":"2023-12-27T06:21:23","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T12:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:42:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:42:05","slug":"mouse-fever-what-to-know-about-the-virus-mowing-down-putins-soldiers-fighting-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/12\/27\/mouse-fever-what-to-know-about-the-virus-mowing-down-putins-soldiers-fighting-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Mouse Fever: What To Know About The Virus \u201cMowing Down\u201d Putin\u2019s Soldiers Fighting In Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Forbes<\/a> A disease spread by rodents that causes vomiting and bleeding from the eyes called \u201cmouse fever\u201d is tearing through Russian troops fighting in Ukraine,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to Ukrainian intelligence, illustrating the poor conditions soldiers face as the war edges towards stalemate and nears the two-year mark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMouse fever\u201d is reportedly \u201cmowing down<\/a>\u201d Russian troops \u201cen masse\u201d near the city of Kupyansk in Ukraine\u2019s Kharkiv region, Ukraine\u2019s military intelligence directorate (GUR) said in a Telegram post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symptoms of mouse fever include a severe headache, fever, rashes, low blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and bleeding from the eyes, GUR said, adding that the disease resembles flu in its early stages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disease also affects the kidneys, GUR wrote, meaning infected people can experience severe pain in the lower back and have difficulty urinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disease is spread by rodents and transmitted to humans when they inhale dust from rodent excrement or eat contaminated food, the GUR said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GUR claimed the Russian command is ignoring complaints from its troops about illnesses like mouse fever, believing them to be an excuse to avoid combat duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GUR\u2019s report on the disease spreading through Russian troops has not been independently verified and Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Forbes\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT WE DON\u2019T KNOW<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

GUR did not identify the disease it claims is striking down Russian troops. The agency said it was viral in nature, which, along with its mode of transmission and the symptoms identified, suggests mouse fever could be\u00a0hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome<\/a>\u00a0(HFRS). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HFRS is a \u201c group of clinically similar illnesses caused by\u201d a cluster of related viruses known as hantaviruses.\u00a0Hantaviruses<\/a>, which can also\u00a0cause respiratory infections<\/a>, are carried and transmitted by rodents and people can become infected following exposure to aerosolized urine, droppings or saliva, in addition to direct contact with broken skin or membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth. There is no specific treatment, cure or vaccine for hantavirus infection according to the CDC and \u201crodent control is the primary strategy for preventing hantavirus infections.\u201d Depending on the virus and type of infection, hantavirus can be\u00a0fatal<\/a>\u00a0in fewer than 1% of cases or as\u00a0many<\/a>\u00a0as 38% of cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forbes A disease spread by rodents that causes vomiting and bleeding from the eyes called \u201cmouse fever\u201d is tearing through Russian troops fighting in Ukraine,\u00a0according\u00a0to Ukrainian intelligence, illustrating the poor conditions soldiers face as the war edges towards stalemate and nears the two-year mark. \u201cMouse fever\u201d is reportedly \u201cmowing down\u201d Russian troops \u201cen masse\u201d near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5626"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11454,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions\/11454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}