Hantaviruses, which are single-stranded negative-sense RNA viruses, make up a genus of the family Bunyaviridae. They are prevalent in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, but not in Australia. Beginning with the American Civil War, later in World War I and II, and then in the Korean War in the 1950s and the wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, hantaviruses have had a long history linked to trench warfare and associated contact with rodent reservoirs (reviewed in1). Hantaviruses were identified first as pathogens in the course of their isolation in 1978 by Lee et al,2 and today, at least 30 serotypes that differ in geographic distribution, rodent reservoirs, and clinical features are known (reviewed in3"9). Although hantaviruses in North and South America cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, hantaviruses in Asia and Europe usually cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).
展开▼
