PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESEVATION – Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele has confirmed in a news release that a girl 10 years or younger has died on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from hantavirus. She died last week and she will be laid to rest today.

People become infected through contact with hantavirus infected rodents or their urine and droppings, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

President Steele called for tribal programs and other organizations "to immediately lend their support in whatever way possible to ensure that this tragedy does not strike again."

By KRISTI EATON

The Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. —
While many Oglala Sioux residents living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation had heard about an outbreak of hantavirus in the Navajo Nation in 1993, they weren't worried about the disease spread by rodents until a 7-year-old member of their tribe died last week.

Tribal officials said late Monday night a second case has developed, and they are working with several agencies to pass out hundreds of cleaning kits that include gloves, masks and bleach to help prevent further spread of the disease. Rodents shed the virus in their urine, waste and saliva, and it can become airborne in particles of dust.

The Navajo outbreak, in which several otherwise healthy young people died after suffering acute respiratory failure, led to the discovery of hantavirus. But it was hundreds of miles away and nearly two decades ago. Pine Ridge didn't need to worry about that, residents thought.

"Until it hit us ... it was something we couldn't even imagine," tribal spokeswoman Donna Salomon said.