Content updates

Maintain this list newest first. Each entry should name what changed, why, and which pages were touched.

2026-05-14

• Second monetization page + ASIN-ification of Supplies blocks: Shipped Best respirator for cleaning mouse droppings: N95 vs P100 as the highest-commercial-intent page on the site — a focused single-decision comparison page that links directly to specific NIOSH-approved respirator products via Amazon ASINs (3M 8210 N95 20-pack; 3M 7502 P100 kit with filters). Frames the choice as CDC-aligned categories (“N95 or higher”), not brand prescription. Also replaced searchQuery with specific asin IDs in src/lib/data/supplies.js for the nine highest-impact items across cleanup/prevention/RV categories: 3M 7502 P100 kit, 3M 8210 N95 20-pack, Lysol Crisp Linen Disinfectant Spray (the Amazon listing literally says “Kills Hantavirus” on the product label), Stuf-Fit copper mesh, YardGard 1/4-inch hardware cloth, Great Stuff Pestblock foam, Tomcat wooden snap traps, Energizer Vision PRO 1000+ lumen flashlight, and the Vacmaster Beast Series HEPA shop vac. Commodity/size-variant items (gloves, contractor bags, paper towels, sealed food storage, vehicle-specific cabin air filter) kept the searchQuery fallback because a current-results page converts better than a stale ASIN there. Specific products convert dramatically better than search-result lists, so this multiplies revenue on existing Supplies block impressions without any new traffic required.
• SERP-CTR sprint on impression-leading pages: GSC showed 6,541 impressions over 28 days across Prevention, Treatment and recovery, Hantavirus vs flu, and Symptoms at positions 6–11, but only 4 clicks — pages were ranking, not winning the click. Rewrote SERP titles + meta descriptions to put the keyword first within YMYL guardrails (“Hantavirus Prevention: Seal Up, Trap Up, Clean Up”, “Hantavirus Treatment: Is There a Cure? (CDC Guidance)”, etc.). Added in-body funnel links from /treatment-and-recovery and /hantavirus-vs-flu into /prevention (the monetized page). On /prevention itself, added a cleanup <Supplies> block in the Clean up section (the prevention block was already there) and renamed the prevention block heading from “Seal Up rodent-proofing” jargon to plain language.
• New high-intent monetization page: Shipped How to mouse-proof a house as the tactical deep-dive on the CDC’s Seal Up step — where mice get in, the materials that actually stop them (and the ones that don’t, like steel wool and unmodified expanding foam), a room-by-room inspection pass, and common mistakes. Forms a topic cluster with /prevention rather than competing with it. Carries one <Supplies category="prevention"> block. Wired through sitemap routeMap, IndexNow PATHS, /topics (Cleanup, cabins, and rodent-proofing section), and Related Guides on /prevention and /rodent-droppings-cleanup. Targets the higher-volume “mouse-proofing” query family (more common search than “hantavirus prevention”) while still funneling readers into the existing prevention/cleanup pages for the medical framing.

2026-05-13

• Andes virus explainer (evergreen): Shipped Andes virus as a focused, dedicated page on the strain at the center of the 2026 cruise cluster. Consolidates content that was previously spread across the cruise + person-to-person pages, distinguishes Andes from Sin Nombre / U.S. HPS-causing strains by reservoir, geography, transmission patterns, and clinical course. Cites the same CDC/WHO/ECDC pages already audited in the repo — no new outbound URLs.
• Two new reality-checks for the live cluster: Shipped Hondius cruise passengers: what U.S. authorities say to do (high-intent passenger-facing — points to clinicians and local health departments, deliberately not medical advice) and Hantavirus and U.S. states: what the cruise passenger map actually tells you (addresses the “map shows states where passengers returned home” framing — operational tracing vs. community spread).
• Reality-check matcher updated: Added regex patterns in src/lib/data/realityChecks.js for the two new entries so the news index pairs them with current headlines (/hondius/i, /king county|seattle/i, /map shows/i, /states where/i, etc.). Patterns are ordered most-specific first so the passenger-action card wins over the state-map card on a passenger-named headline.
• Wiring: Added the three new routes to src/routes/sitemap.xml/+server.js (routeMap) and scripts/ping-indexnow.mjs (PATHS) so search engines pick them up on the next deploy. Added cross-links from the homepage “anxious from a news headline” path, the cruise-outbreak Related Guides footer, and /topics. Bumped last_reviewed on the homepage, cruise page, person-to-person page, topics index, and news index to today’s date. news.json refreshed via npm run news:fetch against today’s Google News RSS (24 items, top items dated 2026-05-13).
• Editorial note on the live cluster (2026-05-13): Coverage today references roughly 11 cases / 9 confirmed (CIDRAP), a King County, Washington exposure assessment, NYT/Stanford/Sci Am/NBC explainer pieces, and a CDC outbreak current-situation page. The new pages above route those headlines toward calm, sourced answers. No primary-source URLs added beyond what was already in the audit set; new pages reference the same CDC/WHO/ECDC pages and let those agencies’ live pages carry the moving numbers.

2026-05-08

• Top-of-page rebuild + reality-check desk: Demoted the disclaimer to a quiet eyebrow line above the masthead, rebuilt the masthead as a single-row baseline-aligned bar (brand left, priority nav right), and added a dedicated homepage Hero block with kicker, larger H1, lede, and a trust-payload meta row (“Aligned with CDC & WHO” + sources count + Disclosure). Triage paths now lead with the cleanup card (the affiliate-conversion path) for editorial coherence.
• News desk: Added /news — a daily-refreshed index of tracked hantavirus headlines paired with our published reality-checks. Headlines are pulled by scripts/fetch-news.mjs (Google News RSS, no API key) and refreshed by .github/workflows/news.yml on a 13:00 UTC cron. Two seed reality-checks shipped: Could the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak cause a pandemic? and Is there a hantavirus vaccine?. New LatestNews strip surfaces the top five tracked items on the homepage.

2026-05-07

• Content depth + internal-link pass (existing pages): Roughly 2–3× expansion across every substantive topic page (Symptoms, Transmission, Prevention, Rodent droppings cleanup, HPS incubation and symptom timeline, Hantavirus vs flu, Treatment and recovery, Diagnosis and testing, Hantavirus in the United States, HFRS and Seoul virus, Can hantavirus spread person to person?, Cruise ship outbreak, Seasonal cabins/RVs, Home, FAQ, Sources) without introducing new factual claims beyond the existing CDC/WHO/ECDC source set. Added a standardized “Related guides” footer to every article so the internal link graph is dense and predictable: each page now links to roughly 5–7 sibling articles by intent (exposure / symptoms / cleanup / context). Source lists on each page were also reconciled with what the article cites in body text. No frontmatter title or slug changes; FAQ visible Q&A wording preserved so existing FAQPage JSON-LD remains aligned.

• Breakout-search response: Added two fast-turn explainers aimed at current intent spikes: Can hantavirus spread person-to-person? and Cruise ship outbreak: what U.S. readers should know. Both pages separate U.S. CDC baseline risk (rodent exposure) from international Andes-outbreak nuance, with WHO DON + ECDC assessment citations. Wired both into nav, sitemap, home topic guides, and Sources so users can move from headline anxiety to practical prevention pages quickly.

• Gap closure (YMYL / long-tail): Added Treatment and recovery, Diagnosis and testing, Seasonal buildings and RVs, and HFRS and Seoul virus pages; expanded Symptoms with CDC-cited HPS severity language; added four FAQ entries (pets, cure/treatment, diagnosis, HFRS vs HPS) with matching FAQPage JSON-LD; linked Prevention to seasonal guide; extended sitemap, nav, home topic list, and Sources (HFRS brief + clinical overview index). All outbound links are CDC/WHO pages already audited or added in this batch.

• SEO topic guides: Added four prerendered pages targeting common queries (safe rodent-droppings cleanup, HPS incubation/timeline, U.S. deer-mouse/geography framing, HPS vs flu overlap). Updated sitemap paths, primary nav, home “Topic guides” section, and FAQ (+ JSON-LD) with two new Q&As. Sources: CDC hantavirus portal, prevention, healthy-pets cleanup, and HPS clinician brief.

• CDC/WHO link refresh: Replaced retired CDC paths (/about/transmission, /prevention/clean-up under hantavirus, etc.) with current CDC/WHO URLs verified via npm run audit:links. Rodent cleanup now points to healthy-pets/rodent-control/clean-up.html; WHO uses the live health-topics page.

• Initial publication: Scaffolded SvelteKit + mdsvex site with Home, Symptoms, Transmission, Prevention, FAQ, Sources, sitemap/robots, FAQ JSON-LD shell, and link-audit script. Wording is intentionally conservative and CDC-referenced; next reviews should re-open CDC pages before expanding claims.

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Template for new entries

## YYYY-MM-DD
- **Change:** …
- **Pages:** …
- **Sources checked:** …