So why all the fuss about the six confirmed cases in Yosemite? Since then, 602 cases of hantavirus pulminary disease, the fatal sickness asssociated with the virus, have been reported in 34 states. US wilderness outfits and public health officials have been warning about hantavirus for years, ever since an outbreak of the “ Sin Nombre” virus, a type of hantavirus, was newly identified in the Four Corners region of the country in 1993. Park officials have traced the cases back to a cushy tent compound called Curry Village where those afflicted stayed at some point over the summer, and have alerted 3,000 visitors via email of potential exposure to the virus. This year, my paranoia is even more founded: Two people have died and four more are recovering from the virus in what’s being described as an unprecedented outbreak this summer in Yosemite. Whenever I stay in backcountry huts in Northern California’s Sierra mountains, I fight back paranoia spurred by posted signs describing the ominous hantavirus, a rare but deadly sickness spread by rodents who nest in cabins and congregate around likely sources of food and shelter. And in a pattern shift for the outbreak, a man who had recently stayed in the High Sierra Camps in Yosemite tested positive for the virus, so officials widened the scope of the potential outbreak to include areas outside of the Curry Village tent cabins and now believe that 22,000 park visitors might have been exposed over the summer. Update (9/7/12): Another person was confirmed to have died from hantavirus after spending time in Yosemite, bringing the death toll to three and infection count to eight. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
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