Report On Hantavirus Outbreak

The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has released a report regarding last year’s hantavirus outbreak in Yosemite National Park.

It states that park officials acted “appropriately and within department policy.” However, it recommends that any design changes to privately run lodging quarters first be reviewed by the National Park Service. Officials found that deer mice nestled inside the walls of tent cabins in Curry Village were responsible for passing the hantavirus. It is noted that NPS officials were not required to approve recent changes made to the “Signature Tent Cabins” of concessionaire Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts when rafters and wall studs were added to the structures.

At least nine Yosemite visitors fell ill to the hantavirus last summer, and three of them died. The report also advises the park to increase pest monitoring and inspections in the park.

(Click here for an earlier story on the virus outbreak.)