Abstract
Hantaan virus was discovered in Korea during the 1970s while other similar viruses were later reported in Asia and Europe. There was no information about hantavirus human infection in the Americas until 1993 when an outbreak was described in the United States. This event promoted new studies to find hantaviruses in the Americas. At first, many studies were conducted in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, while other Latin American countries began to report the presence of these agents towards the end of the 20th century. More than 30 hantaviruses have been reported in the Western Hemisphere with more frequent cases registered in the southern cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil). However there was an important outbreak in 2000 in Panama and some rare events have been described in Peru, Venezuela and French Guiana. Since hantaviruses have only recently emerged as a potential threat in the tropical zones of the Americas, this review compiles recent hantavirus reports in Central America, the Caribbean islands and the northern region of South America. These studies have generated the discovery of new hantaviruses and could help to anticipate the presentation of possible future outbreaks in the region.
Highlights
Hantavirus is a genus in the family Bunyaviridae
These viruses infect humans through inhalation of excreta from persistently and asymptomatically infected rodents [1]. Some members of this genus are not pathogenic to humans, but others produce two distinct illnesses: (I) those found in Asia and Europe cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), which have a lethality approaching 12%, or epidemic nephropathy (EN), with an approximate lethality of 1%; (II) the viruses circulating in the Americas generate a severe respiratory disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), associated with a lethality between 10% and 50% depending of the virus genotype [2,3]
Segments obtained from 11 HPS patients and seven rodents indicated that Araraquara virus (ARAV) and Juquitiba virus (JUQV) virus were circulating in Atlantic and Cerrado areas located in the southern states of Parana, Santa Catarina, and Rio
Summary
These viruses infect humans through inhalation of excreta from persistently and asymptomatically infected rodents [1] Some members of this genus are not pathogenic to humans, but others produce two distinct illnesses: (I) those found in Asia and Europe (old world hantavirus) cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), which have a lethality approaching 12%, or epidemic nephropathy (EN) (a less severe form of the previous disease), with an approximate lethality of 1%; (II) the viruses circulating in the Americas (new world hantaviruses) generate a severe respiratory disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), associated with a lethality between 10% and 50% depending of the virus genotype [2,3]. Reports of Hantaviruses in the Northern Cone of South America and the Brazilian Amazon
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