Hantavirus - History

History

The hantaviruses are a relatively newly discovered genus of viruses. Several thousand United Nations soldiers became ill with "Korean haemorrhagic fever" (now called HFRS) during the Korean War. This outbreak sparked a 25-year search for the etiologic agent. The isolation of Hantaan virus, or HTNV, was reported by Ho-Wang Lee of South Korea in 1978.

In late Medieval England a mysterious sweating sickness swept through the country in 1485 just before the Battle of Bosworth Field. Noting the similar symptoms which overlap with Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS, see below), several scientists have theorised that the virus may have been the cause of the disease. The hypothesis was criticised because sweating sickness was recorded as being transmitted human-to-human whereas hantaviruses were not known to spread in this way. However, infection via human-to-human contact has since been proven in Hantavirus outbreaks in Argentina.

In 1993, an outbreak of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome occurred in the Four Corners region in the southwestern United States. The viral cause of the disease was found only weeks later and was called the Sin Nombre virus (SNV, in Spanish, "Virus sin nombre", for "nameless virus"). Its rodent host, the Deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), was first identified by Terry Yates, a professor at the University of New Mexico.

In addition to Hantaan virus and Sin Nombre virus, several other hantaviruses have been implicated as etiologic agents for either HFRS or HPS. Other identified hantaviruses have not been associated with disease.