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West Nile, Hantavirus claim more victims

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    Summer of sickness for Americans

  • Duration 2:34
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A bizarre outbreak of -- deadly disease that one of the nation's top tourist spots health officials confirm two more visitors to Yosemite National Park in California.

Have come down with a rare hands a virus.

That brings the total number of recent cases to six with two of them dying.

And a virus spreads through rats and mice it causes flu like symptoms which can stay hidden for up to a month and a half after exposure.

It kills more than one in three people the virus infects.

And there is no cure.

Let's bring in doctor William Shatner he's the chair of Vanderbilt university's department of preventive medicine and doctor I guess this thing is there mice droppings.

Get caught in the air and then we inhale these mice droppings the -- love -- because of the food.

We have -- so.

-- I mean how do you avoid this.

Well it's very hard to avoid Trace exactly as you say.

No viruses in the mice it comes out in their droppings in the urine and then -- stirs it up and we breathe it and it's very very hard to avoid.

I guess you could avoid it by not going to the two to the park you know going to the pool instead.

I guess the other thing is is that it takes like a month or a month and a half to present with symptoms I mean.

You know this is one of those things were who knows who you got it from and and you don't present for a month and a half but that's kind of frightening.

It is frightening but if people leave the national parks particularly Yellowstone and then becomes sick.

They should tell their doctor that they've been there and they might have been exposed to on -- Yeah -- -- -- talking about west now because now reading that there are 16100 cases this year 66 people have died.

You know it's surprising -- but you're saying these numbers don't surprise you why.

Well.

West Nile is always a surprise because it's a new virus in this hemisphere.

It's a complex ecosystem you know the virus is in the birds gets into the mosquitoes in some of the mosquitoes bite us.

So the interaction of the birds and mosquitoes determine how much west Nile we're going to hand and didn't -- parts of the country.

Yeah and I had no -- I'm here you have action.

Yet the -- it outright and hurricane Isaac might have helped but it's the birds carry -- that the mosquitoes.

They -- the birds and mosquitoes bite us are we afraid more of the mosquitoes -- the birds.

No we're just we're afraid of the mosquitoes and so in order to prevent that.

Use repellent if you're out at dawn or dusk Wear long sleeves -- long pants.

And that go around your -- up and eliminate all standing water because that was -- mosquitoes we.

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