HEALTH ALERT: Human plague case shuts down Yosemite campground

Only one child was hospitalized with the plague.

Federal state officials were forced to close a Yosemite campground on Highway 120 after receiving knowledge of a reported case of human plague contracted by a child who visited Yosemite National Park and Rainbow Pool in the Stanislaus National Forest.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Park Service officials said they planned to close the campground from August 10 to 14.  It has been reported that wild rodents and their fleas are the among possible carriers of the infectious bacterial disease known as the plague, according to public health officials.

No other visitors got sick or reported symptoms of the plague. The child, from Los Angeles County, who visited Rainbow Pool and camped at Crane Flat in mid-July was hospitalized and is now recovering.

Crane Flat Campground has at least 150 sites with space for recreational vehicles and trailers, at least five restrooms and an amphitheater. It is 7.5 miles from the Big Oak Flat entrance station on Highway 120, about a 55-mile drive east of Sonora.

"The park is working with the California Department of Public Health regarding a case of human plague in California involving an individual who camped at the Crane Flat Campground and visited the Stanislaus National Forest," Yosemite officials stated on the park's web page.

"As an extremely precautionary public health measure, flea treatment will be applied to rodent burrows in the Crane Flat Campground in Yosemite National Park," explained the Yosemite officials. "This flea treatment is a commonly used to protect wildlife, pets and human health from this non-native disease."

Rebecca Garcia of the Stanislaus National Forest said the California Department of Public Health officials stopped at Rainbow Pool, just east of the Rim of the World overlook on Highway 120, last week and "performed a visual assessment to determine risk of plague transmission."

"Based on this assessment, the area was determined to be of low risk," Garcia concluded.

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