Hantavirus outbreak at Yosemite considered 'unprecedented'

Health officials described the outbreak of hantavirus at Yosemite National Park as rare as the park took steps to warm the public.

Jana McCabe, a Yosemite park ranger, called the hantavirus outbreak "unprecedented."

"We take this extremely seriously," she said. "We want to know what's going on."

After learning that a Pennsylvania visitor's death was caused by hantavirus, Yosemite officials sent emails Monday evening to those who stayed in the "signature tent cabins" in Curry Village between mid-June and late August, said park spokesman Scott Gediman. Letters were sent to visitors whose email addresses were not on record.

The fatality marked the third confirmed case of the rare rodent-borne disease linked to the park. Last week, park officials said a 37-year-old Bay Area man had died and an Inland Empire woman in her 40s was recovering after being exposed to the virus. Park officials believe there may be a fourth case but had yet to receive confirmation Tuesday.

All four stayed separately at the signature tent cabins in June, Gediman said. Officials have traced the outbreak to deer mouse droppings in the area.

Repeated cases of hantavirus at the same location within a year is "very rare," said Dr. Barbara Knust, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been 587 cases of human infection from hantavirus recorded between 1993, when the virus was first identified in the Four Corners area, and 2011, according to the CDC. About one-third have been fatal.

Transmitted through urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome takes between one and six weeks to manifest itself in humans, officials said. The symptoms — fatigue, fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain — are often confused with the flu, Knust said, but can quickly worsen as one's lungs begin to fill with fluid.


In general, Knust said, the virus is transmitted when people come in contact with