2 more Yosemite visitors stricken with deadly virus

SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - Two more visitors to Yosemite National Park have been diagnosed with a deadly rodent-borne virus, raising the total number of people infected in the unusual outbreak to six, California public health officials said on Thursday.

Two men died from the rare lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and four other people survived the rodent-borne illness. Most of the victims are believed to have contracted the virus while staying in tent-style cabins this summer in a popular camping area called Curry Village.

Park officials earlier this week shut down 91 insulated tent-cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through pencil-sized holes, nesting between the double walls of the structures.

Park authorities have notified 2,900 parties of visitors who rented the tent cabins from June through August that they may have been exposed to hantavirus.