Death at Yosemite: Hantavirus in the Cabin Walls

Last summer's hantavirus outbreak at Yosemite threw a strange
kind of scare into one of America's most beloved national parks. Hanta's carried by deer mice, so it's no stranger to the backcountry. But the virus is extremely rare--about 30 cases a year in the United States--and it usually infects just one victim, not several at a time. The Yosemite outbreak, which infected ten park visitors and killed three, was the biggest outbreak in nearly twenty years. And the most mysterious. It took weeks for state health officials and park rangers to figure out what was going on. Now, six months later, the tent cabins at the outbreak's epicenter are being torn down, and the full tale can be told. Outside Magazine sent me to Yosemite in early September, and published my full article in this online special earlier this week. Remember, if you see signs of mice in your cabin, shed, or laundry room: Wear a mask, wet the place with a disinfectant like a diluted bleach solution, and clean it thoroughly. Do not sweep. And don't let the mice back in.