hanta in yosemite

[The Yosemite Bear]

Hanta warning

Yosemite officials told 1,700 past visitors on Tuesday they may have been exposed to a rodent-borne disease already blamed for the deaths of two people who stayed at the park.

The email alerts involved hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which can be carried in the urine, saliva and feces of infected deer mice.

All of the at-risk visitors had stayed in the "Signature Tent Cabins" in Yosemite National Park's Curry Village.

Yosemite officials warned those who stayed there from mid-June through the end of August to beware of any symptoms of hantavirus, which can include fever, aches, dizziness and chills.

Park officials told people to seek medical help immediately for such symptoms. There is no specific treatment for the respiratory illness.

Two other people were infected and were expected to survive.

Federal epidemiologists learned over the weekend of the second fatality.

Earlier this month a man from Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area died, and a woman from Southern California was sickened after staying in infected tent cabins in Curry Village, a family friendly area with the park's lowest-cost accommodations.

The four people known so far to have contracted the illness stayed around the same time in June. Federal health officials say symptoms can develop up to six weeks after exposure.

Of the 587 documented U.S. cases since the virus was identified in 1993, about one-third proved fatal.

Thousands of people visit the park every month, so it would be impossible to track everyone who had set foot in Curry Village, officials said.

Curry Village is located at the base of the 3,000-foot promontory Glacier Point.

Park spokesman Scott Gediman said the Delaware North Co., which runs the park's lodging facilities, is working to shore up cabins to protect park-goers.

"There are rodents and some are infected and that's what happens," Gediman said. "This is a wilderness setting. It has nothing to do with the cleanliness of the cabins."

This year's deaths mark the first such fatalities in park visitors, although two others were stricken in a more remote area in 2000 and 2010, officials said.


Source: 1,700 Yosemite Visitors Risk Disease: Officials | NBC 7 San Diego

so yes I am safe.

[LadyTevar]

Third death: a local West Virginian.

It's setting off a "omg killer-mice" panic, despite the fact WV mice do not seem to have the virus.

[The Yosemite Bear]

update on the deermice of Caernabog (monte python joke)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Public health officials have begun examining blood samples and questionnaire results from dozens of Yosemite National Park workers who volunteered for a study designed to shed light on an unprecedented outbreak of deadly hantavirus.

This week's screening, which involved 96 workers, is the latest effort by officials to uncover clues about the rare, mouse-borne lung disease that has infected at least nine park visitors and killed three since June.

"This is a unique opportunity to learn more about potential exposure to hantavirus from the people who lived and worked in close proximity to this cluster of cases," park spokesman John Quinley said Thursday.

One aim is to help researchers design a study of the California park's more than 2,500 workers in a search for clues about how the virus infects people and how to prevent it.

Among the lingering questions over the outbreak is why hantavirus infected park visitors while sparing employees.

All but one of the nine infected visitors stayed in Curry Village in double-walled, insulated tent cabins later found to be infested with deer mice. The tiny, white-bellied mice carry the airborne virus in their droppings, urine and saliva.

The park closed the infested tent cabins at the end of August, after learning of two of the hantavirus deaths.

This week's screening will examine park workers' blood for antibodies signaling exposure to the hantavirus. Employees also answered questions about where they live, their contact with mice, their job duties and their hantavirus training, Quinley said.

"We've had a lot of employees go through hantavirus training," he said. "We're interested in knowing if the training works."

The voluntary study is part of a broader scientific effort that will include the first whole-genome sequencing for the hantavirus strain that struck Yosemite over the summer. It marked the biggest cluster of cases since the disease was first identified in the United States in 1993.

At that time, when hantavirus pulmonary syndrome infected healthy young adults in the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, Navajo elders linked the outbreak to an abundance of pine nuts and an explosion of mice coming out for the feast.

Since then, more than 600 Americans have been diagnosed with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The incurable disease kills more than a third of those infected.

To date, humans have never been known to transmit the virus. People can inhale the hantavirus when mice droppings mix with dust, especially in confined, poorly ventilated spaces.

(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Eric Walsh)

[The Yosemite Bear]

update on the deermice of Caernabog (monte python joke)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Public health officials have begun examining blood samples and questionnaire results from dozens of Yosemite National Park workers who volunteered for a study designed to shed light on an unprecedented outbreak of deadly hantavirus.

This week's screening, which involved 96 workers, is the latest effort by officials to uncover clues about the rare, mouse-borne lung disease that has infected at least nine park visitors and killed three since June.

"This is a unique opportunity to learn more about potential exposure to hantavirus from the people who lived and worked in close proximity to this cluster of cases," park spokesman John Quinley said Thursday.

One aim is to help researchers design a study of the California park's more than 2,500 workers in a search for clues about how the virus infects people and how to prevent it.

Among the lingering questions over the outbreak is why hantavirus infected park visitors while sparing employees.

All but one of the nine infected visitors stayed in Curry Village in double-walled, insulated tent cabins later found to be infested with deer mice. The tiny, white-bellied mice carry the airborne virus in their droppings, urine and saliva.

The park closed the infested tent cabins at the end of August, after learning of two of the hantavirus deaths.

This week's screening will examine park workers' blood for antibodies signaling exposure to the hantavirus. Employees also answered questions about where they live, their contact with mice, their job duties and their hantavirus training, Quinley said.

"We've had a lot of employees go through hantavirus training," he said. "We're interested in knowing if the training works."

The voluntary study is part of a broader scientific effort that will include the first whole-genome sequencing for the hantavirus strain that struck Yosemite over the summer. It marked the biggest cluster of cases since the disease was first identified in the United States in 1993.

At that time, when hantavirus pulmonary syndrome infected healthy young adults in the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, Navajo elders linked the outbreak to an abundance of pine nuts and an explosion of mice coming out for the feast.

Since then, more than 600 Americans have been diagnosed with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The incurable disease kills more than a third of those infected.

To date, humans have never been known to transmit the virus. People can inhale the hantavirus when mice droppings mix with dust, especially in confined, poorly ventilated spaces.

(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Eric Walsh)

[LadyTevar]

YB? Did you get tested?

[The Yosemite Bear]

nope, and I have a shtty cough lately too....

[LadyTevar]

If you're not in the ER getting tested by the time you read this, I will come over and kick your ass.

[Borgholio]

Just came back from Yosemite last weekend. I go every year. This time we stayed in the Wawona hotel so mice aren't an issue, but we did go hiking on a trail next to Curry Village. Park was fairly packed (for the end of summer). Seems people aren't terrified to the point where they stay home. That's a good thing.