Up to 10,000 Yosemite visitors possibly exposed to hantavirus

The signature tent cabins in Curry Village at Yosemite National Park

/ Yosemite National Park

(CBS/AP) FRESNO, Calif. - Yosemite park rangers said on Friday that up to 10,000 people who stayed in the national park may have been exposed to the rodent-borne hantavirus, which kills one-third of the people it infects.

Park concessionaire Delaware North Co. sent letters and emails this week to nearly 3,000 people worldwide who reserved the insulated "signature" cabins in Curry Village between June and August, warning them that they might have been exposed.

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The cabins hold up to four people, and park spokesman Scott Gediman said Friday that means up to 7,000 more visitors might have been exposed to the virus that so far has killed two people and sickened four others.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 calls a day are coming into Yosemite's new hantavirus hotline as visitors frightened about the growing outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome call seeking answers.

"We're reaching out and they are reaching out to us, and we are trying in every way shape and form to be transparent and forthright," he said. "We want to tell people this is what we know. The most important thing is the safety of park visitors and employees."

On Thursday, the California Department of Public Health confirmed that a total of six people have contracted the disease at Yosemite, up from four suspected cases earlier in the week.

Alerts sent to state and county public health agencies, as well as local doctors and hospitals, have turned up other suspected cases that have not yet been confirmed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Additional suspected cases are being investigated from multiple health jurisdictions," the CDC said in an advisory issued to health care providers.

The hantavirus causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). The illness that begins as flu-like symptoms can take six weeks to incubate before rapid acute respiratory and organ failure. There is no cure, and anyone exhibiting the symptoms must be hospitalized.

All of the victims confirmed so far stayed in the high-end, insulated tent cabins in the Curry Village section between mid-June and early July.

Park officials worked quickly to disinfect all 400 of the Curry Village cabins when the outbreak first was detected earlier this month. When the outbreak was narrowed to the 91 double-walled insulated cabins, the California Department of Public Health ordered them shut down Tuesday.

Because the cabins are made up of two walls filled with insulation, park spokeswoman Kari Cobb to HealthPop said authorities are afraid that the infected mice are living between the walls of the cabins. Yosemite has moved all people who reservations at Curry Village to other accommodations in the park.

The disease is carried in the feces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents and carried on airborne aerosol particles and dust.

As the busy Labor Day weekend launches and word about the outbreak spread, some guests were cancelling lodging reservations at the park. But Gediman says others on waiting lists for hard-to-get accommodations are snapping them up.

The hantavirus outbreak occurred despite park officials' efforts to step up protections.

A 2010 report from the state health department warned park officials that rodent inspection efforts should be increased after a visitor to the Tuolumne Meadows area of the park fell ill.

The report revealed 18 percent of mice trapped for testing at various locations around the park were positive for hantavirus.

"Inspections for rodent infestations and appropriate exclusion efforts, particularly for buildings where people sleep, should be enhanced," it said.

The park's new hantavirus policy, enacted April 25, was designed to provide a safe place, "free from recognized hazards that may cause serious physical harm or death."

The 91 insulated, high-end canvas cabins in the century-old Curry Village are new to the park. They were constructed in 2009 to replace some that had been closed or damaged after parts of Curry Village, which sits below the 3,000-foot Glacier Point promontory, were determined to be in a rock-fall hazard zone.

Upon taking them apart for cleaning, park employees found evidence of mouse nests in the insulation.

The deer mice most prone to carrying the virus can squeeze through holes just one-quarter-inch in diameter. They are distinguished from solid-colored house mice by their white bellies and gray and brown bodies.

In 2011, half of the 24 U.S. hantavirus cases ended in death. But since 1993, when the virus first was identified, the average death rate is 36 percent, according to the CDC.

[SumDumusr]

It's not funny but now it is 22,000 who have received letters (so obviously the exposure was going on for a much longer period -- at least double). No doubt there are yellow pad/mahogany table meetings about how this adversely affects public perceptions (cash flow at the Park) and "image" of the poltical administration (how much shall they admit? How honest is honest?) Candor? forget candor; image. P.C., visitor levels .. revenue. Hantavirus is present (to some extent) in most rodent populations just like plague (all over California). Hantavirus is hemmoragic fever just like Ebola (and deadly just like Ebola). But the objective is to "make it sound better" through wordsmithing. "Spin artists," phraseology -- well -- BULL.

[Yosmite-camper]

I read your article about the Hantavirus, and it states that people who at risk, stayed in the signature cabins, June - August 24th, 2012. I stayed in Yosmite Valley, Curry Village, "signature tent cabins" on August 27th, 2012. I was not warned about the Hantavirus, no one uttered a word to us, and graciouslly let us into the "premium tent". They also changed are tent from the 300 series to the 900 ones (where the outbreak was found). This was on the 27th!! After they knew about the virus, in th premium cabin! The day we left, we read that public health officials made them lock the cabins. Why were we not notified or warned? We still have not got an email, letter, or call warning us that we are at risk. My friend is now extremely ill, with all the sympthoms (chills, fever, vomiting, coughing, breathing difficulty) and is in the process of getting tested.. and very well can have the virus. For the next 6 weeks I have to live in fear that I may develop this deadly virus.

[SumDumusr]

Such is life. It just ain't fair. Thousands of us had to go into the military (it was the law) and were made to go to Vietnam. We had to live in fear (you know?) While others got college deferments or else got assigned to the DEW line or NATO. But no, **we** had to go to Vietnam. Nobody asked us; they just sent one here and one there -- thousands got dead. Not Jane Fonda; she was rich and famous. She bought a ticket and went there. But they liked her because she is Communist too! You know life just ain't fair.

[Yosmite-camper]

I agree with you. It's not the living in fear part the gets me. I just can't understand why after they found out the deadly virus was isolated to the 91 signature tent cabins, how they could possibly let us stay in there, and not even warn us (in which we would ask to stay somewhere else in the park). My friend now has breathing tubes in the hospital. It would be one thing if they haven't isolated it yet. But they discovered this on the 24th, let us stay the 27th-28th (when on the 28th the state of california made them shut them down). It just boggles my mind that they would let us stay there. 30-50% of people will die who contracted this virus, and this could of easily been avoided if they were transparent about this devastating news.

[karek40]

A double walled tent (rats dung between the walls). They could learn from our troops in Iraq. A single wall tent, sprayed with solid cell foam insulation. Before spraying 2 A/C's blowing (one in each end) temp outside 120, inside tent 100 degrees. After blowing insulation, one A/C blowing in one end, temp outside 120 degrees, temp inside 50 degrees. No rats between canvas and foam.

[SumDumusr]

Well, let's face it: this kind of thing never happened under Reagan. These Dumocrats can't coordinate a 2 car funeral (20,000 cars). Biden's roadie car was stolen in Detroit (but he's saving them anyway). Nobody's thinking about the mice who are sick (where's PETA when you need them .. or Greenpeace .. out stomping about global warming). Lucky it wasn't Ebola or the bird flu (fly, flew, will have flown .. done flied). I hope it got some of those U.N. regulator (don't like them either) .. at least it wasn't bed bugs or West Nile mosquitoes. Could have been wurst: dangy fever by gum.

[gottasay2u]

Hantavirus may have infected up to 10,000 people who visited Yosemite Wow! Even the trolls have more credibility than this yo - yo reporter.

[backpackwayn]

He should have said it may have infected up to 3 billion people on earth. Oh the humanity!

I think calling this reporter a yo-yo may have been too generous.

[eteamer]

At least they found that poor little boy who fell in the river weeks ago. And they finaly got the story right, but the pic is still wronge. It was in the wood cabins, which is not cleaned much. FOX was ther every day last week doing interviews. We all coughed alot when we walked by.

[Well_You_Aint_Me]

"And they finaly got the story right, but the pic is still wronge" [sic]

Next time try "finally" and "wrong".

[j_mcdonald-2009]

No, it was not the wooden cabins. It was the "signature" tent cabins that have two layers -- drywall and canvas. That creates a hidden space that the mice could nest in.

[lcapelis]

May have been EXPOSED is a very LONG WAY from "MAY HAVE BEEN INFECTED" . . whomever writes your headlines should go back to journalism school, and high school biology . . . talk about IRRESPONSIBLE sensationalism to get eyeballs . . . I guess this ain't 60 minutes . . . nor CBS News . . is health pop written by Middle School students?

[hlmelsaidtwitter]

Symptoms need six weeks,fears from infected mice.

[call_me_the_breeze]

Evert tent should have a big fat CAT!!!!

[Jim1900]

I am wondering whether any civilization can survive without cats. They were probably necessary for mankind to move from being hunter-gatherers to farming, and then building cities. And some people want to keep them indoors. The thought is appalling.