Hantavirus Scare Creates a Bureaucratic Stir

Curiosity led 7-year-old Drake Hunter of Oxnard to scoop up “Squeaky,” a tiny mouse he befriended on a Santa Rosa Island sand dune during Memorial Day weekend.

He fed it milk and cradled it. It snuggled, and defecated on his hands, exposing him to a potentially deadly virus the rodent was carrying.

Drake is OK, so far, but his seemingly innocent encounter has erupted into a federal case this week over whether the National Park Service does enough to protect the public from the diseased rodents abundant on the Channel Islands.

Ventura County lawmakers first learned of the hantavirus problem at Channel Islands National Park when The Times reported Feb. 14 that wet, mild winters and a lack of predators resulted in a rodent population explosion.

Hantavirus is common in mice across the West, but recent studies show that as many as 70% of island mice carry it, more than in any other territory in the nation, according to state and federal disease experts.

After an investigation, California’s top health officials in March criticized the National Park Service for downplaying the threat, failing to properly notify campers and hikers and neglecting to properly train park personnel.

For several politicians, last week’s incident involving Drake Hunter was the last straw.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) on Tuesday called for the immediate closure of the islands off the Ventura County coast until the park provides adequate public notification.

“The park service has tried to play this down because of the impact it has on tourism,” Gallegly said. “They don’t think this is a problem and they don’t take this seriously enough. I don’t know how you can downplay the danger of this virus; this is not the common cold.”

At Gallegly’s urging, the House subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands he serves on will hold an oversight hearing June 29 in Washington. The panel will scrutinize the National Park Service’s handling of the matter, assess the current risk to the public and explore ways to better notify and protect people.

Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) on Wednesday also expressed serious concerns about hantavirus at the islands and said it is time to examine whether the public is being provided enough information on the threat. For example, Sherman, whose district includes parts of eastern Ventura County, faulted the national park’s Web site for failing to emphasize the prevalence of hantavirus at the islands.

Those statements are at odds with remarks from officials at Channel Islands National Park, who have recently called the furor a “nonissue” and “hantavirus hysteria” and attempted to show that the threat of contracting the disease on the islands is not greater than on the mainland.

Park service officials say no one has ever been known to become sick or died from contracting hantavirus on the islands, and park service spokeswoman Carol Spears said it is unnecessary to close the park.

Health officials are scheduled to meet via teleconference today to discuss Drake’s condition and explore ways to provide better public notification. Representatives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state Department of Health Services, the National Park Service and Ventura County will participate.

Hantavirus is a rare, but often fatal, disease transmitted to people via dust tainted by rodent droppings and urine, and by animal bites. It produces flu-like symptoms that cause the lungs to fill with fluid until the victim drowns.

The strain of hantavirus found at the island park is the same form that killed two dozen people near the New Mexico-Utah border six years ago and has infected 17 Californians since.

Hantavirus has taken on new urgency this year in the West, where deer mice are common, because rodent populations have flourished since heavy El Nino rains in the winter of 1997-98 were followed by a mild winter this year, according to the state health department.

More than two dozen people in western states have contracted hantavirus since early 1998, more than twice as many as in the previous three years combined, according to state health officials. Two people contracted hantavirus in Kern County so far this year and one of them died, said Vicki Kramer, chief of the vector-borne disease section of the state health department.

Though state health officials criticized the park service earlier this year for its handling of the hantavirus risk, Kramer gave the agency high marks Wednesday for working to provide more information to the public.

Health officials credited the park service for posting bulletins at campsites, the park headquarters in Ventura and on tour boats, along with distributing hantavirus-prevention kits to ranger houses on the islands. Officials have scheduled a June 23 hantavirus training session for park personnel.

“I think the National Park Service has been responsive to the issue,” Kramer said. “I don’t think the public needs to be overly alarmed. We have infected rodents in many places in the West, but . . . the risk for those at the islands for a day is low.”

At her home in Oxnard, Julie Hunter said doctors are watching her son closely for the next few weeks. With the exception of a flash fever on Tuesday, Drake appears to be fine. Drake will remain under constant observation at home until the incubation period for hantavirus passes, typically one to four weeks.

Drake found the baby mouse while playing on the beach at Ford Point on Santa Rosa Island, a place the family likes to visit in their boat. He had had extensive contact with the mouse by the time his mother realized he had the animal. She said she kept the rodent for tests, which showed it was probably infected with the virus, because she recalled reading newspaper stories about hantavirus in mice at the islands.

“Skin contact, mucous membrane contact, my son had it all. I thought, ‘Oh man, he’s so exposed,’ ” Julie Hunter said after she discovered the mouse. “Right now, he’s happy as a clam. He doesn’t have a fever or cough. He’s got a great appetite and he’s full of energy. He’s totally perfect.”

James Mills, chief of the medical ecology unit for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the case illustrates how difficult it will be to prevent visitors to the island from coming in contact with infected mice.

“This case does point out that no matter how good a park outreach program is, young children don’t necessarily read posters and listen to their parents,” Mills said.