Yosemite park virus claims third victim

A West Virginian is the third person to have died from a rodent-borne illness linked to some tent cabins at Yosemite National Park that has now stricken eight people in all, health officials said.

The park has issued warnings to some 10,000 people both within the United States and overseas who visited Yosemite between June 10 and late August, and stayed in a specific area of tent cabins.

Previously the number of confirmed cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) was put at six, with two fatalities.

The park said that the other five people were "either improving or recovering".

Yosemite officials said the cabins have been closed and the park is reaching out to overnight guests who have stayed in the cabins.

"We want to make sure that visitors have clear information about this rare virus and understand the importance of early medical care," said Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher.

"We continue to work closely with state and national public health officials, and we urge visitors who may have been exposed to hantavirus to seek medical attention at the first sign of symptoms."

Symptoms of the disease, which can develop with two to six weeks of contracting the virus, include fever, chills, myalgias, cough, headaches and gastrointestinal ailments.

But they can rapidly escalate into serious breathing difficulties and death.

The confirmed cases include six individuals from California, one from Pennsylvania, and one from West Virginia. The types of hantavirus that cause HPS in the United States cannot be transmitted from one person to another.

A 2008 study by California's Public Health Department found that the virus can be found in about one in five of the deer mice in the state's forest service facilities.

Since the disease was identified in 1993, there have been 60 cases in California and 587 nationwide.