Officials at Yosemite National Park in California said on Friday that they will temporarily close a popular campsite because two squirrels were found dead of plague in the area.
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Tests are being conducted on a person from Georgia who toured Yosemite, the Sierra National Forest and other surrounding areas, officials at the California Department of Public Health said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still performing confirmatory testing, the statement said.
Plague is an infectious bacterial disease that is carried by squirrels, chipmunks and other wild rodents and their fleas.
Less than two weeks after announcing that a child who camped at Yosemite’s Crane Flat Campground had the plague, the park said this week Tuolumne Meadows Campground was closing because of the same disease. He is reportedly recovering and no relevant symptoms have been observed in any other member of her family.
Flea treatment successfully reduced the risk of plague transmission at Crane Flat Campground and Tuolumne Meadows Campground in the National Park.
Plague could appear similar to the flu and it could change into a fatal illness in case not treated on time with antibiotics. Yosemite Park officials say the last case of plague associated with exposure in the park was in 1959. “But despite that low risk, we still recommend that people take precautions to avoid rodents and their fleas”.
Officials say an oak tree limb fell on a tent in the heart of Yosemite National Park killing two young campers.
Plague typically spreads from flea bites to rodents.
Yosemite National Park is among California’s biggest tourist destinations and has been visited by 4 million people every year.
He said grief counselors would be on hand when registration and classes begin at Pioneer Middle School and Beckman High School, where numerous boys’ classmates attend.
Once known as the Black Death, plague still exists in parts of the US southwest, but is pretty rare (only about 7 Americans get the disease per year). From then to 2012, more than 1,000 confirmed or probable human plague cases occurred across the nation, but there has never been a recorded case of human plague in Georgia. The disease is characterized by swollen growths or buboes, in the glands of the body, such as around the neck, armpits, and groin. Hikers are advised to use long trousers and also bug repellent.
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Plague is not transmitted from human to human unless a patient with plague also has a lung infection and is coughing. In California plague-infected animals are most commonly found in the foothills of mountains and along the coast.
