Orthohantavirus Survey in Indigenous Lands in a Savannah-Like Biome, Brazil.

Ana Cláudia Pereira Terças-Trettel,Bernardo Rodrigues Teixeira,Elba Regina Sampaio De Lemos,Liana Stretch Pereira,Alexandro Guterres,Jorlan Fernandes,Cibele Rodrigues Bonvicino,Paulo Sérgio D’Andrea,Marina Atanaka,Renata Carvalho De Oliveira,Mariano Martinez Espinosa,Alba Valéria Gomes De Melo

doi:10.3390/v13061122

Abstract

In Brazil, the first confirmed cases of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome in Indigenous populations occurred in 2001. The purpose of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of orthohantavirus infections in the Utiariti Indigenous land located in the southeastern region of the Brazilian Amazon. In December 2014 and 2015, a survey was conducted using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in nine villages belonging to the Haliti–Paresí Indigenous communities. A total of 301 participants were enrolled in the study. Of the two study cohorts, the one from 2014 showed a prevalence of 12.4%, whereas the one from 2015 had a serum prevalence of 13.4%. Analysis of the paired samples of 110 Indigenous people who participated in both stages of the study enabled identification of four individuals who had seroconverted during the study period. Identifying the circulation of orthohantaviruses in the Utiariti Indigenous land highlights a serious public health problem in viral expansion and highlights the need to implement preventive measures appropriate to the sociocultural reality of these communities.

Highlights

Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) is an acute and often lethal disease caused by orthohantaviruses harbored by rodents of the family Cricetidae in the Americas [1,2,3,4,5]
The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of the orthohantavirus infection in the Haliti–Paresí Indigenous community, describe some sociodemographic, epidemiological, and clinical aspects, and reinforce the importance of considering HCPS as the cause of acute febrile illness in the Indigenous communities in Brazil
One hundred ten Indigenous people were enrolled in both cohorts, which enabled a prospective evaluation

Summary

Introduction

Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) is an acute and often lethal disease caused by orthohantaviruses harbored by rodents of the family Cricetidae (subfamiliesSigmodontinae and Neotominae) in the Americas [1,2,3,4,5]. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, from 1993 to May 2019, Brazil confirmed 2134 cases of HCPS, and the state of Mato Grosso located in the southeastern region of the Brazilian Amazon reported the third highest incidence with 311 confirmed cases [16]. More than 16 genotypes of orthohantaviruses circulate throughout the Americas; six of them are associated with HCPS in Brazil and two districts in the Mato Grosso state, Castelo dos Sonhos and Laguna Negra, have identified. In Brazil, the first confirmed cases of HCPS in Indigenous populations occurred in 2001, and since sporadic cases have been reported among these communities in the four states of the federation [16,25]

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