[11/07/02]An infestation of rodents at the new $123 million River Region Medical Center has hospital officials and some visitors scurrying.

Field mice have taken up residence in the waiting room of the intensive care unit at the facility on U.S. 61 North that opened nine months ago. Bruce M. Naremore, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said the problem began with the recent cooler weather and heavy rains.

Engineers and pest control experts are also working to find where the mice are entering the building to try to stop them, he said.

“We’re going to take care of it,” Naremore said. But, “I can’t tell you we’ll never have them again.”

So far this month, 3 inches of rain have fallen on Vicksburg and Warren County when normal for this time of year is .63 inches. Last month, rainfall totaled 8.71 inches, about 6 inches above normal.

River Region, the largest, single hospital building project in Mississippi’s history, opened in February on a previously wooded 64-acre tract. The site is surrounded by mostly wooded areas that are quickly being developed, and Naremore said they believe the rodents are being driven out of those areas.

The mice have been seen only in the ICU waiting area on the second floor, but could be using the building’s walls for shelter. That would mean they could travel nearly anywhere in the 391,196-square-foot facility.

A visitor in ICU set a mouse trap behind a vending machine in the waiting area. Naremore said the hospital uses glue traps, which are safer for visitors, and have placed them out in the areas where the mice have been seen.

Rodents can carry diseases such as typhus fever, trichinosis, plague, jaundice, Salmonella and rat mitedermatitis, all of which can be hazardous to the health of humans and animals.

Bruce Brackin, deputy state epidemiologist with the Mississippi Department of Health, said that generally mice do not carry many diseases, but can carry insects that carry diseases.

“In general, we’re mainly concerned with contamination from their droppings,” Brackin said.

He said another concern is that rodents often cause electrical fires because they chew through wires and insulation. In a hospital, he said the mice could pose a threat to patients.

“The bacteria they might pick up on their feet could cause problems in an already ill person that might not cause problems for a healthy person,” Brackin said.

Naremore said the hospital staff is concerned about the mice invading other parts of the building, but no complaints have been recorded.

River Region replaced the former ParkView Regional Medical Center on Grove Street built in 1957. When construction began in 2000, the new facility was billed as “state-of-the-art.”