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Up to 10,000 people who stayed in lodging cabins at Yosemite National Park may have been exposed to a deadly mouse-borne virus that has killed two people.

Park concessionaire Delaware North sent letters and emails this week to nearly 3,000 people who reserved the insulated Signature cabins between June and August, warning them that they might have been exposed.

The cabins hold up to four people and park spokesman Scott Gediman said Friday that could mean up to 7,000 more visitors might have been exposed to the virus that so far has killed two people and made four others ill.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 calls a day are coming into the national park as visitors frightened about the growing outbreak hantavirus pulmonary syndrome call seeking answers.

On Thursday the California Department of Public Health confirmed that a total of six people had contracted the disease at Yosemite, up from four suspected cases earlier in the week.

Alerts sent to state and county public health agencies, as well as local doctors and hospitals, have turned up other suspected cases that have not yet been confirmed, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The illness that begins as flu-like symptoms can take six weeks to incubate before rapid acute respiratory and organ failure. There is no cure and anyone exhibiting the symptoms must be admitted to hospital. More than 36% of people who contract the rare illness will die from it.

All of the victims confirmed so far stayed in the plush Signature tent cabins in the California park's historic Curry Village section between mid-June and early July. Park chiefs said the double-walled design of those particular cabins made it easy for mice to nest between the walls. The disease is carried in the faeces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents and carried on airborne aerosol particles and dust.

The 91 insulated canvas cabins in the century-old Curry Village are new to the park, built in 2009 to replace some that had been closed or damaged after parts of Curry Village, which sits below the 3,000ft Glacier Point promontory, were determined to be in a rock-fall hazard zone. Park staff found evidence of mouse nests in the insulation while taking them apart for cleaning.

In 2011, half of the 24 US hantavirus cases ended in death. But since 1993, when the virus first was identified, the average death rate is 36%, according to the CDC.

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10,000 exposed to killer virus

Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite Valley at Yosemite National Park in California. Photo: Reuters

Some 10,000 visitors to California's Yosemite National Park could have been exposed to a deadly virus that kills one in three victims and cannot be treated, officials say.

So far, six cases of the rare hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) have been confirmed - two of whom have died - while a "multiple" number of other suspected cases of the rodent-borne disease are being investigated.

Yosemite authorities closed down the "Signature Tent Cabins" earlier this week at Curry Village, a popular lodging area in Yosemite Valley, the tourist centre of the scenic park visited by millions of people every year.

The National Park Service (NPS) has written to some 2,900 people who booked stays in the Boystown area tent lodgings between June 10 and August 24, alerting them to keep an eye out for symptoms of HPS.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of people who actually stayed in the tent cabins - those who booked plus their guests - at 10,000.

"On August 24, 2012, the tents were disinfected and visitors were relocated. People who stayed in the tents between June 10 and August 24 may be at risk of developing HPS in the next six weeks," the CDC said.

The incubation period for HPS is typically two to four weeks after exposure, with a range of a few days up to six weeks.

Symptoms include fever, chills, myalgias, cough, headaches and gastrointestinal ailments.

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National Park tourists exposed to killer virus

Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite Valley at Yosemite National Park in California. Photo: Reuters

Some 10,000 visitors to California's Yosemite National Park could have been exposed to a deadly virus that kills one in three victims and cannot be treated, officials say.

So far, six cases of the rare hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) have been confirmed - two of whom have died - while a "multiple" number of other suspected cases of the rodent-borne disease are being investigated.

Yosemite authorities closed down the "Signature Tent Cabins" earlier this week at Curry Village, a popular lodging area in Yosemite Valley, the tourist centre of the scenic park visited by millions of people every year.

The National Park Service (NPS) has written to some 2,900 people who booked stays in the Boystown area tent lodgings between June 10 and August 24, alerting them to keep an eye out for symptoms of HPS.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of people who actually stayed in the tent cabins - those who booked plus their guests - at 10,000.

"On August 24, 2012, the tents were disinfected and visitors were relocated. People who stayed in the tents between June 10 and August 24 may be at risk of developing HPS in the next six weeks," the CDC said.

The incubation period for HPS is typically two to four weeks after exposure, with a range of a few days up to six weeks.

Symptoms include fever, chills, myalgias, cough, headaches and gastrointestinal ailments.

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Killer virus at Yosemite

Yosemite's "moonbow" - a waterfall rainbow that captures the light of the moon. New fears have been raised that thousands of visitors to the iconic park have been exposed to a deadly virus.

SOME 10,000 visitors to California's Yosemite National Park could have been exposed to a deadly virus that kills one in three victims and cannot be treated

So far, six cases of the rare hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) have been confirmed - two of whom have died - while a "multiple" number of other suspected cases of the rodent-borne disease are being investigated.

Yosemite authorities closed down the "Signature Tent Cabins" earlier this week at Curry Village, a popular lodging area in Yosemite Valley, the tourist centre of the scenic park visited by millions of people every year.

The National Park Service has written to some 2900 people who booked stays in the Boystown area tent lodgings between June 10 and August 24, alerting them to keep an eye out for symptoms of HPS.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of people who actually stayed in the tent cabins - those who booked plus their guests - at 10,000.

"On August 24, 2012, the tents were disinfected and visitors were relocated. People who stayed in the tents between June 10 and August 24 may be at risk of developing HPS in the next six weeks," a spokesperson said in a statement.

The incubation period for HPS is typically two to four weeks after exposure, with a range of a few days up to six weeks.

Symptoms include fever, chills, myalgias, cough, headaches and gastrointestinal ailments.

"The disease often progresses rapidly to respiratory distress, requiring supplemental oxygen and/or intubation, non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema and shock," the CDC said.

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Killer virus infects Yosemite visitors

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News Summary: A word from Bernanke pushes up gold