Typical tourist activities are associated with limited or no risk to HPS exposure

Visitors are being assured that despite confirmed cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in six park lodgers, Yosemite National Park is still safe to visit.

“Yosemite National Park is encouraging people to keep their plans to visit Yosemite and to enjoy all the park has to offer,” the National Park Service said.

“The majority of typical visitor activities are associated with limited or no risk of exposure to Hantavirus.”

The six infected lodgers reportedly contracted Hantavirus through breathing in small viral particles from an infected rodent’s urine or droppings that were stirred up into the air.

Four of the six infected lodged in the Signature Tent Cabins of the Boystown area of Curry Village (which have since been closed indefinitely), another lodged in an unspecified area of Curry Village, and one is still under investigation.

Despite “no evidence existing to suggest that travel should be restricted in areas where Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome cases have occurred”, the National Park Service has advised visitors take precautions to reduce the likelihood of exposure to Hantavirus:

• Avoid touching live or dead rodents or disturbing rodent burrows, dens, or nests.
• Do not use cabins or other enclosed shelters that are potentially rodent-infested until they have been appropriately cleaned and disinfected.
• When an unoccupied cabin or other structure to be used has been closed for several weeks, ventilate the structure by opening doors and windows for at least 30 minutes before occupying. Use cross ventilation if possible. Leave the area (preferably remaining upwind) during the airing-out period. The airing helps to remove potentially infectious aerosols that might be present in the structure.
• Do not pitch tents or place sleeping bags in proximity to rodent feces or burrows or near possible rodent habitat (e.g., dense brush or woodpiles).
• Avoid sleeping on the bare ground. Use a cot with the sleeping surface at least 12 inches above the ground or use a tent with a floor.
• Keep food in rodent-proof containers.
• Dispose of all trash and garbage promptly in accordance with campsite regulations by burning, discarding in rodent-proof trash containers, or packing it out in rodent-proof containers.