Malaria and Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in Gold Mining in the Amazon Region, Brazil.

Ana Cláudia Pereira Terças-Trettel,Elaine Cristina De Oliveira,Renata Carvalho De Oliveira,Marina Atanaka,Mariano Martinez Espinosa,Alexandro Guterres,Jorlan Fernandes,Raphael Gomes Da Silva,Elba Regina Sampaio De Lemos,Cor Jesus Fernandes Fontes,Alba Valéria Gomes De Melo

doi:10.3390/ijerph16101852

Abstract

People living in mining regions are exposed to numerous biological agents by several specific types of transmission mechanisms. This study is designed to describe fatal hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases confirmed by serology and molecular analysis, where a seroprevalence survey was conducted in the gold mining regions of the state of Mato Grosso, in the official Amazon region, Brazil. Two fatal cases of HPS were confirmed in a mining area in the Legal Amazon, where malaria is one of the most important public health problems. A molecular analysis detected the presence of the genome of the Castelo dos Sonhos virus. Out of the 112 blood samples analyzed, five were positive for Plasmodium infection (four P. falciparum and one P. vivax), and four were seropositive for hantavirus, showing a seroprevalence of 3.57%. One of the four miners who was seroreactive for hantavirus concomitantly had P. falciparum infection, which was confirmed by thick blood smear. This manuscript highlights the importance of considering hantavirus pulmonary syndrome as a diagnostic possibility in febrile infection associated with pulmonary manifestations in mining areas where malaria cases are often identified.

Highlights

People living in mining areas are subject to adverse conditions that are often dangerous, painful and unhealthy
The objective of this study is to describe the occurrence of hantavirus in the gold-mining regions of Mato Grosso state, Brazil, emphasizing the importance of differential diagnosis
This study presents two fatal cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) confirmed by serological and molecular analysis in miners in the União do Norte district of Peixoto de Azevedo, Mato Grosso and shows that the genotype Castelo dos Sonhos virus infected the patients

Summary

Introduction

People living in mining areas are subject to adverse conditions that are often dangerous, painful and unhealthy. The occurrence of malaria cases in gold mining regions has been reported in the countries of Africa, Asia [4,5,6], and South America (Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela) [7,8,9,10,11,12]. These occurrences are related to the profound environmental changes that mining activities cause, disrupting the existing ecological balance in areas that were previously preserved. Public Health 2019, 16, 1852; doi:10.3390/ijerph16101852 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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