[Dschur]

Grand Canyon news

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The death of a Minnesota woman in her early 50's of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), has been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The individual, whose name and hometown have not been released, was admitted to a hospital in Minnesota June 11 and died the following day, according to a press release from the River Runners for Wilderness organization.

According to Minnesota Department of Health officials, she flew to Page, Arizona on May 12, and stayed at Marble Canyon Lodge the nights of May 12 and 13. On May 14, the river runner joined a group of family and friends on a self-guided river trip that launched on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon from Lees Ferry, Arizona ending at Diamond Creek on June 29. After the river trip, the group drove back to Page, Arizona, and spent the night at the Page Marriott Courtyard before traveling back to Minnesota.

According to trip participants, the oarsmen slept on the boats and everyone else slept in tents. One of the rafters mentioned that she saw two mice at Poncho's Kitchen, a little over half way through the trip. It is not uncommon for popular campsites along the river, such as Poncho's, to be inhabited by numerous mice.

[big_load]

Sad and scary.

[Rob del Desierto]

Sad and scary indeed.

[nonot]

Yikes, do you just drop dead of this virus with no warning, or do you have symptoms?

[Jim_H]

What are the symptoms of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome?

HPS begins one to six weeks after inhaling the virus in contaminated dust. The disease begins with 2-6 days of "flu-like" illness including fever, sore muscles, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. As the disease gets worse, it causes shortness of breath due to fluid filled lungs and hospital care is then required. It is usually a serious infection and about 1 out of 3 people diagnosed with HPS have died.

-from:
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehsphl/factsheet/hanta.htm

[aa7jc]

Good to know.. Thanks!

[jeffmacewen]

Most patients die before HPS is diagnosed. The assumption being that they had a severe form of pneumonia of less exotic origins...

[azbackpackr]

I'm just wondering if this means we are entering another up-cycle of the disease. I do live in an area where it has occurred in the past. There has been at least one case in Springerville, some years ago that I've heard about.

One reason I have a cat...!

[azdesertfather]

Yikes! So nothing really sets this apart from a normal virus until too late?

[Sredfield]

Another reason to stay out of the ruins and old cabins. I had to spend a night in one once and set up the tent inside for this very reason, just to reduce the chances of sniffing the wrong dust.

[azbackpackr]

Dr. Bill Austin of Flagstaff, a renowned doctor there, who is also a veteran Canyon hiker, once told me, after I had camped in a cave on the Bill Hall Trail, that camping in your tent in the cave is not going to help you. You can't avoid breathing the dust when you put your tent away, for example. He recommended that we should have set up tents out in the open. Actually, we didn't even have tents, which was why we sought shelter under that big ledge. (Some of you, no doubt, know which ledge on the Esplanade I'm talking about.) Anyway, I respect him highly and think he probably is right about that. Despite seeing many mice none of us got the virus. This was in 1993, during the time the virus was first becoming very well-publicized in the Southwest, and after there had been a number of deaths on the Navajo Rez. We had all been warned about it, but it was pouring rain, so we camped in there.

[Hoffmaster]

Wow, that is scary. I've crawled around in more mouse poop than I care to think about. I feel really lucky at the moment to not have contracted that disease.

[jeffmacewen]

There was a story floating around a while back about a pro climber who came down with HPS after a mouse found its way into his pickup at a match in Colorado, somewhere. Just goes to show how truly random something like this can be...

[Dschur]

Rangers Receive Report of Fatality on River Trip


Date: April 29, 2011
Contact: Shannan Marcak, 928-638-7958



Grand Canyon, Ariz. – At approximately 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 28, the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report from a commercial river trip of a fatality at river mile 74 on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park.

According to one of the trip guides who reported the incident via satellite phone, the group had gone on a side trip, a hike up the Tabernacle Route, located in the vicinity of Upper Rattlesnake and river mile 74. During the hike, a woman in her 70s lost her footing and fell approximately 100 – 140 feet suffering fatal head trauma.

Park Rangers responded via helicopter to the scene, began initial investigations into the incident and packaged the body for transport.

The body was flown via helicopter to the South Rim where it was met by the Coconino County Medical Examiner.

The National Park Service is conducting an investigation into the incident.

No further information is available at this time.

[azbackpackr]

I did hear it was an AzRA trip.

[Dave1]

Hantavirus claims a victim at Yosemite:

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/08/ ... -yosemite/