To the History of the Discovery and Research into Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome

Abstract

Background: Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a viral, natural focal infection that is currently relevant for many countries of the world and ranks high among zoonotic viral infections in the Russian Federation. The purpose of our work was to present the main stages of the discovery and study of HFRS: from registration of the first clinical cases of the disease by military doctors in the east of our country to the current level of research. Materials and methods: We analyzed scientific literature devoted to the discovery of HFRS and further studies of this natural focal disease. Results: The discovery of many natural focal infections that are still relevant today in the Russian Federation coincided with the beginning of the rapid exploration and development of the Far East in the 1930s. Long-term studies of Soviet and foreign scientists helped systematize knowledge about viral etiology, clinical picture, pathophysiology, and pathomorphology of hemorrhagic nephrosonephritis and isolate the Hantaan virus, the etiological agent of HFRS (Lee HW, 1978). World famous Soviet virologists A.A. Smorodintsev and M.P. Chumakov, local scientists, doctors, and employees of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing made a significant contribution to the research into etiology, terminological consistency, epidemiology, and epizootology of HFRS. Conclusion: At present, the study of various aspects of hantavirus infections is one of the main tasks of the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology named after G.P. Somov. The research continues to establish the mechanisms of functioning of the natural foci of orthohantaviruses at different phases of the population cycles of their main carriers and in different landscape zones of the Russian Far East. A search for new species of orthohantaviruses, their natural reservoirs, and novel antiviral biologically active substances of natural and synthetic origin against orthohantaviruses is going on.