News and Society

Officials are concerned more Yosemite visitors could develop the lung disease because the virus may incubate for up to six weeks after exposure. Photograph: EPA

Yosemite national park has doubled the scope of its hantavirus warning to 22,000 visitors who may have been exposed to the deadly mouse-borne disease, as the number of confirmed cases grew to eight and a third death was reported.

US officials recently issued a global alert, saying up to 10,000 people were thought to be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after staying at the popular Curry Village lodging area between June and August. As many as 2,500 of those people live outside the US, health officials said.

Officials are concerned that more Yosemite visitors could develop the lung disease in the next month or so because the virus may incubate for up to six weeks after exposure.

The warning was expanded to about 12,000 additional visitors to the park's more remote High Sierra camps, after an eighth case of the illness was confirmed in a man who had stayed in tent cabins at three of those camps.

He had also had stayed in a tent cabin at the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and had camped in the wilderness – all locations in the park's high country, the Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said.

His symptoms were so mild he never went to a hospital, but after hearing about the outbreak he was tested, and laboratory results confirmed on Thursday that he had been ill with the disease, Gediman said.

The seven other confirmed victims are all believed to have contracted the virus while staying in one or more of the 91 insulated "Signature" tent cabins in Curry Village, located at a lower-elevation area of the park.

The 91 Curry Village tent cabins were shut down after deer mice were found infesting the double walls of the structures.

Officials in Yosemite, a national park in California whose scenic vistas, hiking trails and wildlife attract about 4 million visitors a year, did not previously consider the High Sierra camps to be at risk of hantavirus.

Those camps will remain open, based on recommendations from public health officials, Gediman said, adding: "We do inspections and we try to keep the rodents out. It's impossible to say every tent cabin is rodent-proof."

He estimated that a few hundred notices were being sent to individuals who still had reservations to stay at the High Sierra camps before they close for the season on 17 September.

The expanded warning came as Yosemite announced a third person had died of the disease and the number of confirmed cases rose to eight, all of them among American visitors to the park.

Health officials in France were also investigating two suspected hantavirus cases there among people who may have been exposed while at Yosemite, according to an assessment by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Gediman identified the third fatality as a West Virginia resident who had contracted hantavirus while staying in Curry Village tent cabins in June. That person died at the end of July, and laboratory tests confirmed on Thursday the death was due to hantavirus, he said.

The two others who died were a man from northern California and a man from Pennsylvania.

The World Health Organisation issued a global alert this week over the cases of hantavirus linked to Yosemite, and advised travellers to avoid exposure to rodents.

The virus can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death. Early flu-like symptoms include headache, fever, muscle aches, shortness of breath and coughing.

There is no cure for the lung disease, which kills over a third of those infected, but early detection through blood tests greatly increases survival rates.

Hantavirus is carried in rodent faeces, urine and saliva that can mix with dust and be inhaled by humans, especially in small, confined spaces with poor ventilation. People can also become infected by eating contaminated food, touching tainted surfaces or being bitten by infected rodents.

The disease has never been known to be transmitted between humans.

Hantavirus was previously known to have infected only two Yosemite visitors, one in 2000 and another in 2010, both at higher elevations in the park.

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As the search continues for a 10-year-old boy swept away by the Merced River in Yosemite, the question of liability in national parks begins again. The parks are meant to be wild and natural, but rely on visitors fees, amongst other revenue, to remain open. Is it negligent to allow people to be so close to waterfalls, rapids, cliffs and rodent-born disease?

Yosemite is not without warning signs. Trailheads note the length of the trail and difficulty. Anything beyond these markers is in conflict with the park's mission to preserve nature. Lining rivers with guardrails and creating hotels in place of simple tents would turn Yosemite into a resort rather than a preserve.

The case of the missing boy is sad and possibly could have been prevented. The ten-year-old Andy was swimming with his six-year-old brother Jacob just down river from Vernal Falls. These powerful waters drop hundreds of feet down into Yosemite Valley. Though August is a time of low water levels and the shallows seem calm, the water is still moving with great force across slippery rocks on the river banks.

The boys were on a camping trip with their church group at the time. Their mother was watching from further away near the waterfall with other adult members of the church group. The area is a popular resting spot along the Mist Trail they were hiking. Regardless, young Andy was swept into the river and drowned. Jacob has not been found and is presumed dead. Their mother was also hurt as she ran and fell on rocks trying to reach the shore near where her children were lost.

Like most deaths at Yosemite, the boys were too close to fast moving water. Two other hikers were lost last year when they decided to cross a footbridge that was slick from the proximity to a waterfall. No sign warned them not to cross under wet conditions, but for many hikers this is a decision made based on ability. Rock climbers who scale the face of Half Dome make a similar call, where they intentionally put themselves in danger and rely on their own equipment to survive. Both hikers who cross the bridge fell off the slick pedestrian bridge trying to save time with the short cut.

The park is responsible for maintenance and care of the land. Negligence would be if the there was a foreseeable and preventable danger in the conditions of the maintained land. For the park, controlling the water levels and speed isn't reasonable. However, there could have been other precautionary actions that weren't taken. Then, the question is how to enforce safety rules in the huge park.

Ultimately, the care of young children falls to the guardian present at the time of the accident. Separating from a group in the wilderness is dangerous not only because people easily lose track of their position in the park, but because help is that much further away. It's best to exercise as much caution as possible to avoid these terribly sad situations of loss in the wild.

For those who have been in an accident this year in California, contact an accident attorney to represent your best interests in court. Visit http://bestaccident-attorneys.com/ to learn more.

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