Hantavirus infection
| Hantavirus | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus, is a hantavirus carrier that becomes a threat when it enters human habitation in rural and suburban areas. | |
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | Infectious disease |
| ICD-10 | B33.4 |
| ICD-9-CM | 079.81 |
| DiseasesDB | 5629 |
| MedlinePlus | 001382 |
| MeSH | D018778 |
Hantaviruses are single-stranded, enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses in the Bunyaviridae family which can kill humans.
They normally infect rodents and do not cause disease in these hosts. Humans may become infected with hantaviruses through contact with rodent urine, saliva, or feces. Some strains of hantaviruses cause potentially fatal diseases in humans, such as hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS)—also known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS)— while others have not been associated with known human disease. HPS (HCPS) is a "rare respiratory illness associated with the inhalation of aerosolized rodent excreta (urine and feces) contaminated by hantavirus particles."
Human infections of hantaviruses have almost entirely been linked to human contact with rodent excrement, but recent human-to-human transmission has been reported with the Andes virus in South America.
Hantavirus is named for the Hantan River area in South Korea where an early outbreak was observed. The virus was isolated in the late 1970s by Karl M. Johnson and Ho-Wang Lee.
Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a group of clinically similar illnesses caused by species of hantaviruses from the family Bunyaviridae. It is also known as Korean hemorrhagic fever, epidemic hemorrhagic fever, and nephropathis epidemica. The species that cause HFRS include Hantaan River, Dobrava-Belgrade, Saaremaa, Seoul, and Puumala. It is found in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
In hantavirus-induced hemorrhagic fever incubation time is two to four weeks in humans before symptoms of infection present. Severity of symptoms depends on the viral load.
Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is found in North, Central and South America. It is an often fatal pulmonary disease. In the United States, the causative agent is the Sin Nombre virus carried by deer mice. Prodromal symptoms include flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, muscle pain, headache, and lethargy. It is characterized by a sudden onset of shortness of breath with rapidly evolving pulmonary edema that is often fatal despite mechanical ventilation and intervention with potent diuretics. It has a fatality rate of 36 percent.
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