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10,000 tourists who stayed in cabins at Yosemite National Park recently might have been exposed to the deadly mouse-borne Hanta Virus. So far , Hanta has made 6 of the tourists ill. Hanta Virus is caused by inhaling the dried feces of infected mice. It is also carried by prairie dogs.

The Park Service is frantically writing and emailing the people who stayed in those cabins this summer, telling them to check in with their doctors.
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On The Daily Show recently, Jon Stewart made jokes about how Americans tend to get worked up over new threats to their health, while they are comfortable with old threats that are much more dangerous. Maybe a little perspective is needed.
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A chicken in Grand Forks, North Dakota has tested positive for West Nile virus, and the disease has also arrived in glamorous Brentwood, California. The chicken belongs to one of the flocks the USDA has placed in various locations around the United States as an early warning for West Nile. Tracy Miller is one of the health workers who tests these flocks once a week to determine if they have been exposed to West Nile. On July 14, a chicken in one of the flocks tested positive, and a blue jay tested positive as well. She says, “While we didn’t think there would be a season that we wouldn’t find it, it’s a reminder that it is here.”
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Newswise – In the wake of the recent SARS and Bird Flu scares, most ofus have forgotten about the West Nile virus. But scientistsare still concerned about West Nile and they’ve discovered aquick new way that mosquitoes can pass West Nile virus toeach other. This study may explain why the West Nile Virushas spread so quickly across the U.S., despite predictionsthat it would gradually die out.
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