Outbreak of Hantavirus Since Summers; Entry Restricted to Yosemite National Park

Since July, four visitors to Yosemite national Park were trapped into the web of a deadly airborne disease called Hantavirus following which two of them were even killed.

Since then, the park has announced to close 91 cabins so that they could prevent other visitors from getting affected. However, it has not been confirmed yet that whether the park officials are actually doing enough to prevent the disease or no. They have informed the guests duly about the spread or are just trying to spread fake information.

Hantavirus disease attacks an individual when he inhales or ingests particles of mouse feces or urine. It is a lethal disease with a 40% mortality rate.

As said by Dr. William Schaffner, the chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, it is quite difficult to calculate that for how long exactly this virus lives outside the body of a mouse.

According to him, when a mouse’s feces and urine dries up, it tends to spread in the air more easily and anyone can breathe it in seconds. Therefore it becomes highly dangerous after drying. But in contradiction to this, Yosemite park ranger Kari Cobb said that after getting dried in sunlight, the virus is almost killed. It is dangerous when it just comes out of the mouse's body.