A state public health office in Las Cruces remained open Monday, two weeks after state workers and the public reported seeing a rodent.
Workers at three different state programs operating in the building reported finding a rodent in late July, according to emails reviewed by Source New Mexico. Staff answered the main phone line Monday morning and said it was still open.
The rat was first spotted later that day, officials said rodent traps were set, no infestation was found and the rat may have fled.
New Mexicans turn to the public health office in Las Cruces, called the Solano Building, for a variety of public services, meaning there is a chance that state workers and members of the public could be exposed.
“These encounters could have resulted in families, children and staff being bitten or scratched by the rat,” building workers wrote in a collective statement shared with management through a union representative on July 25.
Despite these concerns, office managers said the risk was low and refused employees’ requests to work remotely until the rat problem was resolved.
Communications Workers of America Local 7076 represents New Mexico state workers. President Megan Green relayed the Las Cruces workers’ concerns to Health Care Authority Human Resources Director Dustin Acklin and Labor Relations Manager David Rich on July 25.
“This poses a risk to the health and safety of our employees at the Solano building and we appreciate you taking immediate action,” Green wrote. “Keeping staff in the building while the situation is resolved does not make the environment any safer.”
Green asked Acklin and the labor relations manager to allow people to work from home or take administrative leave “until the rats are caught and the cleanup is complete,” but he refused.
A rat under the desk
One worker reported that while sitting at his desk he noticed a rat underneath. “This could have resulted in several staff members being bitten or scratched by the rat,” he wrote.
The rat made its way to the first-floor waiting room, where people were about to receive back-to-school vaccinations. When it was spotted, its screams could be heard by state workers on the second floor, the workers wrote.
The rat then made its way to an area where mothers and babies receive health services, according to the workers’ statement.
Several offices near a warehouse contained rodent droppings and urine, workers wrote.
On Aug. 8, Source New Mexico requested comment from the Department of Health and Health Care Authority that runs business for New Mexico residents in the building, and Doña Ana County, which owns it.
In a joint statement released Monday morning, the agencies said they found “rodent activity in the storage areas” of the building. However, they insist they only saw one rat on July 24 and have not seen it since.
“With no further sightings of the rodent since July 24 and no signs of indoor infestation, there has been no public announcement of the possibility of rodent presence,” they said, adding that there is no infestation.
Theories about where he has gone
The agencies said that as soon as the rodent was reported, county staff immediately inspected the building and found “rodent activity” in its storage areas.
Rich wrote that Doña Ana County Vector Control has set traps and baits and will continue to check them. They set more traps and “stronger baits” in hopes of catching the rat over the weekend while the building was quiet.
On Aug. 5, a supervisor with the state Division of Public Health told Rich that Doña Ana County workers checked the traps daily and there had been “no activity” in them, nor “any evidence of new droppings.”
At 6 a.m. on Aug. 1, a county worker found a large glue trap that showed evidence of a rat that had gotten stuck but had freed itself by biting itself.
“Vector Control is assuming that the rat has either left the building or, as a result of ingesting the glue, possibly died,” Rich said.
When fresh urine, droppings or nesting materials from an infected rodent are disturbed, the virus can become airborne, potentially infecting someone who inhales it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hantavirus can also spread when saliva or droppings from an infected rodent get into breaks in a person’s skin or into their eyes, nose or mouth, according to the CDC. The agencies have ruled out that possibility.
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