Humans can contract hantavirus when they inhale particles from the waste of an infected mouse
Between hantavirus
' first documented appearance in 1993 and the end of 2011, the CDC counted
a total of 587 cases, with 211 deaths, more than a third of those infected. So you can see why recent visitors to Yosemite National Park were dismayed and frightened when the park recently warned that 1,700 of them might have been exposed to hantavirus
while staying in the tent cabins at the park’s Curry Village. Hantavirus is a respiratory disease that first causes flu-like symptoms, then coughing and shortness of breath, and can eventually lead to fatal lung or kidney failure. It doesn’t spread from person to person, but humans can contract it through contact with airborne particles from the feces, urine, or spit of an infected rodent, primarily deer mice. And because the virus can incubate in ...
