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Subscribe to RSSCalifornia's Yosemite National Park is warning more than 20,000 past visitors they are at risk of exposure to the potentially deadly Hantavirus after it claimed another victim. Three people have died out of a total eight people infected after using cabins in the park this summer. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.
Updated at 8:12 a.m. ET: A third person has died from the rare, rodent-carried hantavirus after visiting Yosemite National Park, bringing the total number of infected persons to eight and prompting warnings that the virus is not contained to just one area of the park, health officials said.
Yosemite National Park doubled the scope of its warning on Thursday to some 22,000 visitors who may have been exposed to the deadly mouse-borne disease.
U.S. officials had recently sounded a worldwide alert, saying that up to 10,000 people were thought to be at risk of contracting Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) after staying at "Signature Tents" at the Curry Village lodging area between June and August.
As many as 2,500 of those individuals live outside the United States, health officials said.
Read more on this story on NBCLosAngeles.com
Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman identified the third fatality as a West Virginia resident who contracted hantavirus while staying in Curry Village tent cabins in June. The person died at the end of July, and laboratory tests confirmed on Thursday that the death was due to hantavirus, he said.
DNC Parks and Resorts via AP
Officials are expanding their efforts to notify visitors to a complex of tent cabins at Yosemite National Park who may have been exposed to a rare but potentially deadly rodent-carried virus.
Since June, eight park visitors, including six from California, have contracted the virus, according to Yosemite officials. Three of those infections have been fatal. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), hantavirus is spread by contact with infected rodents, primarily deer mice.
On Thursday, it was revealed that the virus is not confined to Curry Village, according to a statement from the park.
One of the infected campers, who exhibited mild symptoms and is recovering, stayed in multiple High Sierra Camps in Yosemite in July.
The five High Sierra Camps are similar to the Curry Village tent cabins, but they're spaced about six to 10 miles apart and are accessible only via backpacking trails at higher elevation than Yosemite Valley.
US officials sound worldwide alert for Yosemite hantavirus
The other seven cases have all been connected to the historic Curry Village tent cabins, which were recently been closed to the public.
No cure
It can take up to six weeks for symptoms of the virus to show, though they usually appear two to four weeks after exposure. Early stage symptoms include fatigue, fever and body aches, and can rapidly progress to severe difficulty breathing.
While there is no cure for hantavirus, oxygen treatment can increase the chance of survival for infected persons in severe respiratory distress and early detection is key, CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said.
The CDC warns that thousands of campers at Yosemite National Park could be at risk for the hantavirus. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
Hantavirus was first thrust into the public's awareness in 1993, when the virus was identified during an outbreak in the southwestern U.S.
CDC officials say the 1993 outbreak – which infected 42 people from 12 states – is the most comparable incident to the current outbreak.
Health officials at the time scrambled to figure out what was making people sick, and though great strides have been made in the study of the virus, there are still many questions that surround it, said Craig Manning, with the Viral Special Pathogens Branch of the CDC.
Cluster of deadly hantavirus cases worries officials
"There was higher than normal rainfall during the summer of 1993 and that led to a dramatic increase in the population of deer mice, which resulted in more opportunities for humans to be exposed to the virus," Manning said.
Since 1993, there have been 60 cases in California and 602 cases nationally, Manning said, describing the infections as "quite rare."
About one-third of California cases have been fatal, in line with the virus' fatality rate which hovers at around 36 percent.
'Fortunate to be alive': Girl, 7, contracts bubonic plague at Colorado campground
Deer mice
Manning said the recent outbreak has caused people to worry that a house- or field mouse may pose a threat to them.
"The virus is very specific as to its preference for hosts," he said, adding that deer mice can be distinguished by their reddish-brown fur and white underbelly, and are smaller than field mice.
Michael Thurston / AFP - Getty Images, file
Since June, eight park visitors have contracted the virus, according to Yosemite officials.
The deer mouse is one of four rodents which can carry the virus found in every state in the U.S. The white-footed mouse, cotton rat and rice rat can also host Hantavirus.
Deer mice are the most common carriers on the virus, and about 12 percent of their population is positive for Hantavirus.
California Department of Public Health officials issued the following advice for those going to wilderness areas where mice area present:
- Avoid areas, especially indoors, where wild rodents are likely to have been present.
- Keep food in tightly sealed containers and store away from rodents.
- Keep rodents out of buildings by removing stacked wood, rubbish piles, and discarded junk from around homes and sealing any holes where rodents could enter.
- If you can clean your sleeping or living area, open windows to air out the areas for at least two hours before entering. Take care not to stir up dust. Wear plastic gloves and spray areas contaminated with rodent droppings and urine with a 10% bleach solution or other household disinfectants and wait at least 15 minutes before cleaning the area. Place the waste in double plastic bags, each tightly sealed, and discard in the trash. Wash hands thoroughly afterward - Do not touch or handle live rodents and wear gloves when handling dead rodents. Spray dead rodents with a disinfectant and dispose of in the same way as droppings. Wash hands thoroughly after handling dead rodents.
- If there are large numbers of rodents in a home or other buildings, contact a pest control service to remove them.
More information is available at the CDC website's page on the hantavirus.
NBCLosAngeles.com and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Though I'm not one of the "End Timers", things are certainly looking strange.
The rise in deadly disease (Hantavirus, Small Pox, and Bubonic plague), the hottest year on record, the threat of economic collapse worldwide, and the possible start of WWIII in the Middle East have all gotten my radar working overtime.
Can all this be explained away as pure coincidence? Sure, but it certainly has gotten me to pay attention.
Note to everyone who thinks the world will end this year: Send me your stuff.
Our zoo has about 2,600 lbs of elephant turds, 1,300 lbs of hippo turds, and 1,050 lbs of rhino turds. Can you please give us a shipping address on where you would like this sent?
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20500
Denver Bill
Bravo!
However, will there be any noticeable difference?
Crockett
What about Donkey turds?
Actually, smallpox has been eradicated, so there have been no cases of smallpox this year. There are usually between 20-40 hantavirus cases in the U.S. each year, but since there is a cluster you are actually hearing about it. As for plague, there have been 2 cases that have been in the news, but there are always a handful of cases in the U.S. each year. None of this really seems above baseline, so you can stop worrying. The only virus that seems to be above baseline at this point is West Nile Virus, and with any mosquito virus you are going see year-to-year fluctuations based on weather patterns and overall climate changes.
Those darn facts.
Always messing things up for the doomsday folk.
Virologist There might be an even simpler reason. Snakes are being driven out of their natural historic breeding grounds. No snakes, more mice.
lol I actually laughed out loud at all the comments above. Very funny most of them haha esp the white house address. Nice.
Thanks Denver Bill 2!!!
I'll get right on it.
Sincerely,
Crockett
PS
Any member(s) of congress that you would like to cheer up today?
When vacationing in scenic Yosemite, better bring the essentials: Camera..tour guide..full-body biosuit.
Don't forget a giant ball to walk/run in a la hamster ball in case you fall off the edge of a cliff...then you'll bounce like a superball when you hit bottom.
Mother Natures revenge need not be a hurricane or flood.
Ok which one of you let the Lab mice/rat out?
Bleach your tent, disinfect everything, don't prep your food on unclean areas, some little rodent might have pissed there. Keep your hands out of your mouth! Enjoy your camping trip! Lets send all our politicians camping!
Cool beans. It's about time 'mutha natcha' kicked a major mudhole in our arse and stomped it dry. We have been raping this planet for centuries and now is as as good of time as any to start paying the gipper. Besides, wasn't there some crazy jew running around 2,000 years ago casting out demons, causing the deaf to hear, the blind to see...and even rose from the dead himself warning us of what was going to happen?
Did we listen? No. Did anyone even care? No. So there....case closed!! GO HANTA VIRUS!!!!!
We'll only survive as a species if there is a major culling of our population. It certainly sounds horrible to say, but facts are facts. We're not different than any other animal population....need a food source and water source.
RacknStack
Are you volunteering first, as part of the "major culling"? LOL
No, but I have a list (most with Washington, DC addresses)!
Well, I won't necessarily volunteer....but things happen. Like I said, I hate saying it, but the world population is just getting too damn big. Eventually we're going to run out of stuff....and what happens then?
Yosemite staff have been good about getting the word out about this. My family camped at Curry Village and Tuolumne Meadows this year and have received notices by both email and phone.
It seems that Yosemite is a fairly deadly place to go hang out.
This is why I hate camping all of those bugs and now this cements it even more.
my opinion this is really not camping. stay in a tent thats been used by others. people messy and leave some trash or food scraps rats come in and welll you read the rest. camping to me involves no ones elses shelter. i take my tent from my backpack and set it up. i take care of my tent and its cleanliness. in hot weather i use only a hammock. all those little criters in the inner citys are alot sicker than the ones in the wild and if a plague starts that is where it will come from.
Good point, truthhurts. It is usually in the wild where bubonic plague pops up, but for instance, not far from my house (less than a mile) there is a park with a LOT of ground squirrels. It wouldn't take much if those rodents have fleas.....I think I'll go call the county health dept and see if they put flea powder around their burrows.........
Good thing that camping is not my cup of tea!
didn't the Grizwalds stay in one of these tents. thats probably what killed aunt edna.
This sounds like a great place for a congressional junket. Lets send them all and let them enjoy the rest for a couple of weeks. Trouble is these azzholes would probably kill the mice they are much more hazardous then a diseased mouse.
Thanks for the laugh! By the way, you owe me a new computer keyboard -- I spit coffee all over this one after reading your post : )
Someone at Yosemite better have the check book handy. I smell lawsuits.
Oh for crying out loud is this the only thing you can think of is a lawsuit? I suppose you would want to sue someone because the air we breathe doesn't meet your standards of perfect. Not everything that happens in life qualifies as a lawsuit. If this were the case we would all live in bubbles.
Unwedge your panties there. Does that say I would sue? Geez, take a Mydol.
Yes, Einstein, lawsuits are possible because of the negligence in advising the public.
Now have a drink, or something...
The National Parks Department needs some basic hospitality training. If you are going to offer amenities to people and treat them as guests, then you need to cover a certain minimum of service - and cleaning rodents out of guest tents is about as basic as you can get. Otherwise, don't offer the tents, and make people use their own gear, because they will most likely not pack rodents in their own gear. The NPS can't use the "it's the wilderness" excuse for this. The wilderness wouldn't be accomodating a nice warm sheltered place for bunches of deer mice to congragate and spread their fleas, especially around humans. Quite the opposite; if a human lumbered along with their tent and gear, the little critters would probably initially be scared away, lessening the chance of spreading infection. Instead the NPS has led visitors in to a hazardous condition that could be prevented with a very basic level of maintenance.
I disagree. It is the wilderness. If you go there you might get the hanta virus, west nile virus, rock mountain spotted feaver, or eaten by bears.
If you don't like your odds, then stay at a hotel in town. Of course you might get leagonaires desease from the swimming pool or killed in a fire.
Life is risky, there is just no way around it.
don't confuse the Hanta virus with Bubonic plague- bubonic plague is spread with fleas, hanta virus is spread by mouse feces and if you are not careful when you clean up the feces can become airborne which is why they want affected areas aired out for at least 2 hours.
But if you "air it out" after letting it accumulate, didn't you just make it airborne? They either need to routinely clean the tents or take them out of service. They create a hazardous condition not found in nature where humans could contract a disease. The NPS has taken "wilderness" out of it by creating comfy tents that are comfy to more than humans, and now we see the results. The mice aren't in the wilderness - they're in the tents.
People need to leave the issue of politics out of this. The story is about the virus and what people need to do to not get it. It sounds like people just need to keep the areas clean, but I guess that is just to hard for a lot of people.
You have to understand, the National Park Service is part of the Department of the Interior. They are responsible for the development and maintenance of the National Parks, National Forests, National Historic Sites, etc. The budget for this department has been slashed every year. It's hard to maintain a property when there is barely enough money in the budget to have a person there to man the front gate, let alone pay for anyone to clean and disinfect tents and cabins (and no, volunteers can't do it all).
So, actually, yes it is a political problem -- who do you think controls the budget for the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service?
Sounds like the revenue from the tents went somewhere else, as usual. Isn´t this something that Americans should get used to? High government spending, large bailouts for banks and other corporations, billions given to terrorist groups that are supposed to be our enemies-Obama Administration and now our national parks not maintaining tents with the revenue causing another disease outbreak. Sounds like we need to just stop paying taxes until our government can the revenue it has sent over seas to rogue dictators and terrorist organizations as well as wars over natural resources and global power. Like Meatloaf sings; Life´s a lemon and I want my money back. Our politicians are traitors and I want my country back. To you end timers. We must rid our country of pedophiles and return to our founding principles and restrain from the queer rights and laws and God may permit this world to continue on. But as long as we allow the pedophile I mean Communist Party-Jews to interrupt morale laws and decent countries we are doomed because then God will have no choice but intervene. Story of Jonah.
...and this rant of yours is related to Hantavirus and Deer mice how? I think you came into the wrong room! You'll find "Political Snarkiness" 2 rooms down the corridor!
Gee, Charles--First, do you REALLY know the story of Jonah? God told him to go preach to Nineveh and tell them to repent. He wanted God to totally destroy Nineveh-and knew that God would not if they repented. So he ran from God--and got swallowed up by the whale--and spit out on the shores of Nineveh. So he preached. Sure enough, they repented, God didn't destroy them, and Jonah got angry and sit and sulked and pouted. Second, your particular use of the word 'Jews' smacks of antisemitism. If you REALLY want to know what God requires of Christians as regards to the Jews, then you need to go to the New Testament and read Romans chapter 11--all of the chapter. What does that say to you? Third, pedophiles are definitely a scourge on the earth--they prey on children not able to physically or emotionally or developmentally able to defend themselves. I have no tolerance of them. But they have been around for eons--God won't destroy the rest of us because of them. You try to put them in with everyone else you hate (Communists, gays, liberals, etc.) while conveniently forgetting that God has called us to love even our enemies. Fourth, you have a LIMITED concept of what this article is talking about--if you go read virologist comment (#1.5) and Chris (#21.2) you will have a better understanding.
This story had to get political - I suppose this is all President Obama's fault. Not true because the rodents, their urine and feces and Hantravirus have always been a factor in disease - even when Republicans have been in office. There should be nothing political about disease, death and the suffering for these families. Of course, under Republicans/TP, the National Park System would probably be eliminated and/or sold to the rich private sector so they can own and enjoy ALL the beautiful spots in the country..
Very interesting! I've just finished reading Robin Cook's "Death Benefit". With Hantavirus being in the news I suggest you read this book, yes it is fiction but...
I love his books, and read many of them. I haven't read a few of his latest ones. I will look this one up, thanks.
I apologise. The book I was thinking of, dealing with Hantavirus, is Robert Ludlum's "The Hades Factor". Excellent book and very appropriate for this news story. Cook's "Death Benefit" is also very good, but doesn't deal with this type of virus.
Ha, ok thanks. Both good writers. Though isn't Ludlum the Borne Supremacy writer? Didn't think he wrote medical mysteries.
Yes he did write the Bourne series. He's written tons of spy/action stuff, all good. Even though "The Hades Factor" deals with Hantavirus he really doesn't get too in depth on the medical side, a la Cook.
So, for all you 'tree huggers' 'green activists' and 'all natural' freaks, hantavirus is definitely ALL NATURAL and ORGANIC. Because they don't seem to want to control the mouse population artificially in the national park, everyone who stayed in those 'eco-friendly' mouse-infested tents, have a nice day. Maybe Yosemite needs a good forest fire to straighten everything out from years of overpopulated camping areas.
Camping used to be fun and now it has turned into a dangerous trip. The best thing to do is bring face mask and plastic bags for clothing. Do not wear the same clothes everyday. I used to hike and camp in Rainier National Park and wore the same clothes everyday, washing them in streams and camping out only in a sleeping bag. Tents were not on my list. Looks like the only place safe is your backyard at home. So glad my parents rented cabins in the Ozarks for a month each year with no running water and electricity. Lots of great memories, especially gathering wood for the stove, oil lamps, and fishing for your dinner.
I cannot believe they didn't explicitely communicate that the virus is not transmitted from person to person.
Who didn't explicitly communicate??
How can this be so rare if so many people died and not just in Yosemite. Originally "the Experts" said it was only a disease that occurred in Arizona. RODENTS are running rampant everywhere. The health department and CDC need to step up to the plate and do their damn job. I have seen more rats and mice of late than I have ever sen in my lifetime
It doesn't mean every mouse or rat you see is infected. This virus occurs mainly in the south west, and they get about a couple of cases per year. This would not have been an unusual problem IF the park had responded in time and closed the tents to the public while they removed the problem. Instead they allowed more visitors in.
@TFNJ.
It gets a little more complicated than that. Deer mice are ubiquitous in the environment. That means they are everywhere that people are. About 20+% of all deer mice are infected with hantavirus. Anyone in any rural or heavily urban area will tell you that in the early spring and early fall that it is impossible to keep m ice and other rodents out of even the most spotlessly maintained home ---- let a lone a wilderness tent area. The mice seek a place to winter over in the fall and to nest in the spring and can go through holes the size of a pencil eraser with ease.
The issue is not the deer mice or their droppings or their exploratory habits or cleanliness of tents. It is a combination of massive increases in deer mice populations due to global warming and two extremely mild winters in a row, combined with the very dry conditions of August and September in the area. The dryness itself is the exacerbating condition --- it causes the hantavirus to "shed" from the mouse droppings into the air. Even slight disturbances kick up the airborne hantavirus and it is breathed in.
Because of the explosion of the deer mice population, the NPS would have to completely close the park in order to "respond in time" and prevent the illnesses. There is no practical way to "remove the problem." If you clean the tent floors, the mice will re-enter as soon as you leave. Even the most effective poisons and traps will still allow the mice to leave droppings before they are caught or poisoned.
A quick check shows that the NPS would have to close approximately 270 parks and recreation areas to catch all the places where hantavirus is ubiquitous. The public would never put up with it. This is an exceptional situation in that the NPS thinks that there is additional risk to people who used a certain type of double-walled tents, but at this point it is sheer speculation on their part. They are warning people under an abundance of caution.
Trying to blame the Park Service for this is silly. There are hantavirus outbreaks everywhere in the world. Hundreds of GIs were killed by it in the Korean War where it is much more common than here. Regions especially affected by HFRS include China, the Korean Peninsula, Russia, and northern and western Europe. Regions with the highest incidences of HCPS include Patagonian Argentina, Chile, Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Panama. Since a major outbreak in 1993, as of July 2010 eight states had reported 30 or more cases of Hantavirus - New Mexico (84), Colorado (70), Arizona (62), California (42), Washington (41), Texas (37), Utah (31) and Montana (30). Other states reporting a significant number of cases include Idaho (16), Kansas (15), South Dakota (15), North Dakota (12) and Oregon (11).
I understand all that, but look at how many people reported that they camped there, after the cases were reported, and were never advised about the problem. While yes that happens on occasion, and its not the park's fault that the mice are infected, it would seem to me they could have done more to keep so many people from sleeping in the same area. There may be an explosion of deer mice due to climate conditions, but over population doesn't stop humans from hunting bear, wolves, and deer. So upon a report of a hantavirus outbreak, they could have looked for solutions to the mice problem. How else to explain up to 22 thousand people possibly infected in one area?
Because of camping registration records they were able to go back months and notify campers. In an earlier story the problem was that the rodents made nests between the outer tent layer and inner walls of the tents. The inner walls were of sheet rock or wood paneling. These are not canvas tents, they are more of a permanent structure.
Heads up. There is no cure for any virus. There are vaccines for some but no cures. Once you catch a virus your body either beats it or it doesn't. Doctors can only provide supportive care.
Last spring we thought the only danger we had from the wilderness was coming across a cabin full of frozen cows.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48915906
When I travel, I need a hotel room; I am not a camper. However, I understand the appeal of being outside and enjoying nature. Since I am not familiar with campsites, please answer this:
Do campsites have cleaning crews?
If not, do the campsites have inspectors to make sure each tent is clean before the next tenant comes?
Are cleaning instructions posted?
Are campers warned about the risks beforehand?
Just wondering. . .
What are they doing to get rid of the mice?
government ploy