New Ecological Aspects of Hantavirus Infection: A Change of A Paradigm and a Challenge of Prevention- A Review

Abstract

In the last decades a significant number of so far unknown or underestimated pathogens have emerged as fundamental health hazards of the human population despite intensive research and exceptional efforts of modern medicine to embank and eradicate infectious diseases. Almost all incidents caused by such emerging pathogens could be ascribed to agents that are zoonotic or expanded their host range and crossed species barriers. Many different factors influence the status of a pathogen to remain unnoticed or evolves into a worldwide threat. The ability of an infectious agent to adapt to changing environmental conditions and variations in human behavior, population development, nutrition, education, social, and health status are relevant factors affecting the correlation between pathogen and host. Hantaviruses belong to the emerging pathogens having gained more and more attention in the last decades. These viruses are members of the family Bunyaviridae and are grouped into a separate genus known as Hantavirus. The serotypes Hantaan (HTN), Seoul (SEO), Puumala (PUU), and Dobrava (DOB) virus predominantly cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a disease characterized by renal failure, hemorrhages, and shock. In the recent past, many hantavirus isolates have been identified and classified in hitherto unaffected geographic regions in the New World (North, Middle, and South America) with characteristic features affecting the lungs of infected individuals and causing an acute pulmonary syndrome. Hantavirus outbreaks in the United States of America at the beginning of the 10th decade of the last century fundamentally changed our knowledge about the appearance of the hantavirus specific clinical picture, mortality, origin, and transmission route in human beings. The hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) was first recognized in 1993 in the Four Corners Region of the United States and had a lethality of more than 50%. Although the causative virus was first termed in connection with the geographic name of its outbreak region the analysis of the individual viruses indicate that the causing virus of HPS was a genetically distinct hantavirus and consequently termed as Sin Nombre virus. Hantaviruses are distributed worldwide and are assumed to share a long time period of co-evolution with specific rodent species as their natural reservoir. The degree of relatedness between virus serotypes normally coincides with the relatedness between their respective hosts. There are no known diseases that are associated with hantavirus infections in rodents underlining the amicable relationship between virus and host developed by mutual interaction in hundreds of thousands of years. Although rodents are the major reservoir, antibodies against hantaviruses are also present in domestic and wild animals like cats, dogs, pigs, cattle, and deer. Domestic animals and rodents live jointly in a similar habitat. Therefore the transmission of hantaviruses from rodents to domestic animals seems to be possible, if the target organs, tissues, and c...

Diagnosis of hantavirus infection in humans and rodents in Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, Brazil

“…However, it is known that dogs and cats can bring infected rodents into homes after catching them outside [26][27][28] . Zeier et al 29 reported findings of hantavirus IgG antibodies in dogs, cats, hares and deer. The same authors also reported neutralizing antibodies in dogs, cats, pigs and cattle [29][30][31][32][33][34][35] .…”

“…Zeier et al 29 reported findings of hantavirus IgG antibodies in dogs, cats, hares and deer. The same authors also reported neutralizing antibodies in dogs, cats, pigs and cattle [29][30][31][32][33][34][35] . Ferreira 36 mentioned that domestic animals like cows, lambs, chickens, dogs, cats and pet rodents could become infected by hantavirus, but without a serious risk of contaminate for their owners.…”

Seoul Virus Infection in a Wisconsin Patient with Recent Travel to China, March 2009: First Documented Case in the Midwestern United States

“…Within an epidemic area, individual risk is typically correlated with exposure to infected rodents, 8 although other presumed sources of infection for humans exist and include other wild and domestic animal species. 14 The risk for acquiring HFRS is low for international travelers; however, HFRS cases are increasingly being recognized in nonendemic areas because of increases in international travel to endemic areas, 15 reduction of human-rodent contact is the key to prevention. 16 1 369 576 26 3 1,003 2,427 37 5 970 2,096 86 7 459 515 119 9 344 224 125 11 178 88 144 17 69 39 …”

Screening of the Prevalence of Antibodies to the Tick Hyalomma lusitanicum in a Province of Northern Spain

“…Almost all incidents caused by emerging pathogens have been attached to zoonotic agents, which expanded its host range and are capable of breaching the species barrier (Zeier et al, 2005). Besides the known diseases, new ones emerge or reemerge due to a variety of socioeconomic, health and environmental questions.…”