Hantavirus

Extract

Sin Nombre virus (SNV), an emerging pathogen in the United States, was identified in 1993. This hantavirus, a member of the Bunyaviridae family of RNA viruses, is transmitted by its reservoir host Peromyscus maniculatus, the deer mouse. Transmission is by inhalation of aerosolized feces, urine, or saliva from the infected mice. The illness that pursues, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), is characterized initially by mild flu-like symptoms, followed by rapid progression to respiratory distress. There is no established therapeutic regimen and treatment is only supportive. Preventive methods include attempts to minimize contact with the rodents since elimination of the virus is not realistic.

In the age of HIV, cancer, and a plethora of emerging infectious diseases, a new virus has brought deadly havoc in the United States and other parts of the world. In 1993, the first documented cases of hantavirus infections appeared in the Four Corners Region of the U.S. Because of mysterious deaths due to adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the Sin Nombre virus (SNV), an RNA virus that belongs to the Bunyaviridae, has silently ascended the mortality charts.¹ The initial endemic area, which includes the northeast corner of Arizona, the southeast corner of Utah, the southwest corner of Colorado, and the northwest corner of New Mexico, reported additional deaths in that same year. Since its first occurrence, studies have exposed a proliferation of the organism and the disease it produces, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

The greatest incidence continues to occur in the Four Corners region, but individuals who…

ABBREVIATIONS: BUN = blood urea nitrogen; DIC = disseminated intravascular coagulation; ECMO = extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; ELISA = enzyme linked immunosorbent assay; EPA = Environmental Protection Agency; HFRS = hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome; HPS = hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; IHC = immunohistochemistry; NO = nitric oxide; PT = prothrombin time; PTT = partial thromboplastin time; RNA = ribonucleic acid; RT-PCR = reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; SNV = Sin Nombre virus