Forward To HSO Report from Mission Commander Hugh S. Gregory: By my own free will, without cohersion or bribery, (no chocolate cake around), I, Hugh S. Gregory admit that am the person who was sick with an upper respiratory infection, with sinus cold complications, during the MDRS Crew 35 rotation (also known as the Pisces One Expedition). I wish to reaffirm that I did on March 3rd, 2005 give my fully informed consent to all my Crew 35 team mates and by e-mail notification of my illness, the Mars Society Mission Support volunteers and staff also, to make public reports on and public comments on and discussion about my illness and they all have my full unreserved permission, for the purposes of scientific research, to publically talk about and discuss both verbally and in publish reports and papers, the effects my illness had on the performance of a short handed analogue Mars HAB operation by Crew 35 at the MDRS.

I want to thank from the bottom of my heart Felip Broering and Ambulance Officer Adam Rehnberg for their professionalism and taking care for me me while this illness was developing and starting to incapsitate me. I also compliment their good sense of humour and understanding and tolerance, in dealing with an obviously ill Commander who was too stubborn to go to bed when it was needed until he looked like a wreck and was about to keel over

Hugh S. Gregory
Mission Commander MDRS Crew 35

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The most common health issues during our rotation were small hand and finger injuries, mostly due to cold weather, low air humidity and the Hab maintenance activity itself, which most times requires strength and manual abilities, in an environment unfavourable to skin cicatrization. We also had some crew members with some allergic rhinitis manifestations, probably because of dust and of being a badly aerated environment.

We had one crew member attacked by an apparent upper respiratory tract infection Even though his clinical findings did not appear to be serious, eventually the consequences of his condition were very limiting to him, due to the large amount of symptoms that usually are part of this clinical feature, as: sore throat, cough, fever, headache, body pain and nasal congestion. From such situations not only personal but also team productivity normally tends to decrease a lot. In our team case, fortunately that was not what happened, our mate bravely resisted in front of his health conditions and kept his normal functions performance intact during almost whole rotation, contradicting the HSO and also other crew members' advice to rest and to decrease the time of work. There are not proper words to express the disappointment he must have kept hidden from us, when after looking forward to a unique experience on Mars-analogue for months and when those days finally come you catch cold. It is easily comprehensible he did not want to hand over from an apparent simple cold. The problem is sometimes, specially when you sleep little and work a lot, even what seemed to be a common virus may become a quite incapacitating clinical feature. Then comes the day you simply have to stop, take some rest and eventually some required medications, feed yourself well and wait for better days. Our mate hand himself over only on the last three days of a fourteen days rotation and had to increase his rest dosage and delegate some of his functions to another team mate. This diagnosis was re-confirmed on our mate's return to his home, as reported back to me, he stayed sick for three more weeks after Crew 35 was finished. I have received notifications that once back home, the weight of his self imposed desire not to let his team mates down was lifted off his shoulder, and this time he did follow Doctor orders and stayed home in bed for 3 weeks to recuperate.

Other two problems were two different environmental hazards.

A spider, which we thought to be a "Hobo Spider" (Tegenaria agrestis) was seen running up a wall and quickly caught by the Commander, who solved that small problem. Dr. Francis took a photo of it for our web page before our Commander returned this creature to the outdoors. This is good because a "Hobo Spider" venom from a bite can cause serious flesh damage that can take up to several years to heal completely does make lasting life long scarring.

However the most important issue we should discuss on this subject certainly is about a possible rodent infestation of the Hab, a matter that probably is not solved.

As we considered a quite important problem, our final report will be mostly dedicated to this issue. Also as reported some days before, we captured what seemed to be a grey pack rat and on the current field season as far as we know at least one other crew has captured a pack rat (see Crew 33 reports) and another a crew also captured a mouse. This facts made us realize the problem might be bigger than we or even other crews had thought, because at that same day morning we saw what seemed to be a house mouse. We thought that mouse was about 7cm and the other rodent captured at night we presume was no less than 15cm size, quite different from a mouse. It meant, of course, we were at that time dealing with more than one rodent specimen.

Mus Musculus

Rattus Rattus

Rattus Norvegicus

Actually hantaviruses, well remembered by Dr. Francis, seem to be the most important disease we should worry about regarding rodents, but there are a lot of other different diseases carried by rodents as well (see below).

It is well known that the majority of rodents captured in buildings in the cantonment area will be house mice and these rodents are not associated with hantaviruses that infect people. However, in some cases family housing residents may trap field rodents that enter their homes. If several field rodents are captured, or if signs indicate that an ongoing rodent infestation is present, according to expert studies then rodent trapping and disposal should be performed by a knowledgeable pest controller wearing higher-level protective clothing and equipment. A "family housing unit" as MDRS, once heavily infested with field rodents, should be treated the same as other rodent-contaminated bui ldings.

As this kind of zoonosis may end or at least seriously affect a mission, we are very concerned with the possible existence of wild rodents nests in the Hab or not only less dangerous house mice nests or specimens.

Some of the most common rodent-borne diseases are listed bellow.

1. Plague:
   • A disease of rodents caused by the bacterium, Yersinia pestis
   • Rat fleas feeding on a bacteria-infected rodent would transmit the disease to the next host (rat or human) through biting
   
   
2. Urban Typhus:
   • A rickettsial disease transmitted by rat fleas
   • Flea feces are rubbed or scratched into the wound or abraded skin
   • Also possible by the inhalation of dust or ingestion of food contaminated with flea excreta
   
   
3. Spotted Fever:
   • A rickettsial disease transmitted by rickettsia-infected ticks feeding on human through biting
   • Larvae feed on rodents; adults feed on dog as their host
   
   
4. Scrub Typhus:
   • A rickettsial disease transmitted by rickettsia-infected mites feeding on human through biting
   • Transmitted by mites amongst rodents in scrubby areas
   • Accidental infections in man: campers, hikers (MDRS crew members)
   
   
5. Rat-bite Fever:
   • A disease of rodent caused by bacteria
   • Usually transmitted to human through rat biting
   
   
6. Hantaan Disease
   • A disease of rodents caused by Hantaan virus
   • Transmitted by air-borne droplets and fecal particles of infected rodent under poor ventilation
   • The initial clinical findings are fever, chills, intense myalgia, headache, prostration. It begins as a nonspecific febrile illness followed by rapid progression to a shock-like state, associated with increased pulmonary vascular permeability and acute respiratory distress syndrome. And also some hematologic features like thrombocytopenia (decreased platelets), hemoconcentration (increased hemoglobin levels) and leukocytosis (increased leukocytes)
   • Since Hanta virus infection is thought to occur by inhalation of rodent wastes, prevention is aimed toward eradication of rodents in houses and avoidance of exposure to rodent excreta in rural settings
   • Person-to-person transmission, while documented, is rare.

We know there is a lot of rodent excreta in the whole Hab, specially on the attics, both on the lower level attics above the toilet facilities and the upper level above the staterooms. Then, a reasonable mindset to take would be, collect some rodent excreta sample or even a rodent specimen and ship it for a laboratory analysis, since the diagnosis can be made serologically, by immunohistochemical staining, or by PCR amplification of viral tissue DNA.

This is one MDRS Crew 35 opinion: We must focus on the issue that many people have been confined in a habitat with very possibly more than three rodents (Crew 35 rotation pack rat killed, Crew 33 rotation pack rat kill and a mouse caught and released outside on previuos crew, and at least one remaining mouse still roaming at large) and something has to be done.

We may be exaggerating on this but surely in this case "It is better sin for excess than being careless".

I am of hope to make again another expedition to MDRS with Pisces Team. It was good fun and maybe next mission there is time enough to allow my science project to proceed.

References

1. Armed Forces Pest Management Board. Technical Information Memorandum no.41: Protection From Rodent-Borne Diseases. Defense Pest Management Information and Analysis Center, Washington; 1999.
   
   
2. Government of Hong Kong; Food and Environmental Hygiene Department: Rodent Pests and Their Control.
   
   
3. Suzuki A, Bisordi I, Levis S, Garcia J, Pereira LE, Souza RP, et al. Identifying Rodent Hantavirus Reservoirs, Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004;12:2127-34.
   
   
4. Ksiazek TG, Peters CJ, Rollin PE, Zaki S, Nichol S, Spiropoulou C, et al. Identification of a new North American hantavirus that causes acute pulmonary insufficiency. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1995;52(2):117-23.