Yosemite: 1,700 may have had exposure to rodent-borne illness

(Reuters) - Yosemite National Park is warning 1,700 people that they may have been exposed to a potentially deadly rodent-borne lung disease while staying in the famous California park, and said that two visitors had died from the illness known as hantavirus.

The tourists who died had stayed in Curry Village, a popular camping area tucked below the park's sheer granite walls, a Yosemite spokesman said on Tuesday. A third visitor was sickened by the virus but recovering.

Investigators were looking into whether a fourth visitor was suffering from the illness, which is carried by wild rodents. All four stayed in the area's tent cabins on overlapping days in mid-June, spokesman Scott Gediman said.

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