Hantaviruses

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK - Sisters Lauren Scott and Patrice Fambrini stood near the check-in desk of Curry Village, a quaint collection of tents and cabins in Yosemite National Park, and considered the merits of their lodgings. Last year, three people died and six more became ill after staying at the campground - infected by a rare, mysterious and usually dangerous rodent-borne illness known as hantavirus. "The way these were constructed created a habitat for the mice to be there," Fambrini said nervously.

Health officials issued a warning after a 32-year-old Portola woman became California's 13th confirmed hantavirus victim. The woman, whose name was withheld, is at home recuperating after a brief stay in a hospital following flu-like symptoms, said Bill Crigler, Plumas County environmental health director. The latest case comes about a month after a 55-year-old San Pablo, Calif., man died of hantavirus.

Re "Hantavirus Safety Must Take Priority," Ventura County Perspective, June 20. I continue to be disappointed but not surprised by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley). He is concerned with the possibility that the federal government may put lives at risk because of lax notification procedures about the hantavirus epidemic in mice at Channel Island National Park. His concern for public safety apparently does not extend to those at risk from injury by handguns, as he voted for John Dingell's National Rifle Assn.

Recent letters and articles have incorrectly stated that 70% of the deer mice on the Channel Islands have hantavirus. In fact, according to the California Department of Health Services, 20.9% of the deer mice tested on the islands have tested positive for the antibodies to the disease. Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands had no mice test positive for antibodies of the disease. The statewide prevalence is 11.8%, with mice testing positive in 62% of the counties tested. The presence of antibodies does not necessarily mean the animal is infectious, as the antibodies can be transmitted genetically, and even through mother's milk.

Hantavirus victims can be on their deathbed within hours. But a new test developed by University of New Mexico researchers enables doctors to diagnose the virus faster. Hantavirus kills half its victims. With deceiving flu-like symptoms, the virus can quickly progress to deadly stages, flooding the victim's lungs. The new test, which takes five hours to get results, is three hours faster than the previous test.

Two weeks after finding two deer mice near Simi Valley infected with the deadly hantavirus, the county Environmental Health Division on Thursday announced finding 10 more infected deer mice in three locations in Los Padres National Forest. Environmental health specialist Randy Smith said the hantavirus was found in deer mice populations in the Wheeler Gorge Campground north of Ojai, where one of 11 rodents tested positive; at Mt.

Three rodents trapped in the cities of Redlands and Rialto have tested positive for the deadly hantavirus, county public health officials said Thursday. The officials are advising residents to be aware of the risks of infection. People can inhale the virus when droppings or nests in dust and dirt are disturbed. The virus causes flu-like symptoms. A wood rat and deer mouse found Oct. 24 in Redlands and a deer mouse caught in Rialto tested positive.

A northeast Arizona teenager died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, the first confirmed case of the disease in the state this year, health officials in Phoenix said. The Arizona State Health Laboratory earlier in the week confirmed the illness. Officials are still trying to determine where the Navajo County youth contracted the disease. Hantavirus is spread by deer mice and other closely related species.