Antiviral therapy and prevention against hantavirus infections

Hantavirus infections.

Hantaviruses are the causative agents of the zoonotic diseases known as haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe and Asia, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in the Americas. These pathogens are maintained in the wild by rodent reservoirs and are mainly transmitted via the aerosol route. The infection is chronic and apparently asymptomatic in host animals. Whilst HFRS is cau...

Human Hantavirus Infections, Sweden

The prevalent human hantavirus disease in Sweden is nephropathia epidemica, which is caused by Puumala virus and shed by infected bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus). To evaluate temporal and spatial patterns of this disease, we studied 2,468 reported cases from a highly disease-endemic region in northern Sweden. We found that, in particular, middle-aged men living in rural dwellings near coas...

Flaviviral Infections and Potential Targets for Antiviral Therapy

The family Flaviviridae includes human and animal pathogenic viruses of global importance, e.g. the human flaviviruses West-Nile virus (WNV), dengue virus (DENV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and yellow fever virus (JEV) as well as hepacivirus hepatitis C virus (HCV). This virus family was named after the jaundice occurring in course of YFV infection, ...

Hantavirus infections in The Netherlands

Persistent hantavirus infections: characteristics and mechanisms.

Hantaviruses include serious human pathogens that are maintained in nature in persistently infected rodents and that can also persistently infect cultured mammalian cells, causing little or no cytopathology. The mechanisms of hantavirus persistence are only beginning to be explored. Recent data point to subtle changes in the viral genome that might result in the differential regulation of repli...