Serological evidence of Thailand virus-related hantavirus infection among suspected leptospirosis patients in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the current prevalence of leptospirosis and hantaviral infections, and the socio-demographic characteristics and risk factors of infected patients, in Kandy, Sri Lanka. This report discusses the serological evidence of hantavirus infections among 105 suspected leptospirosis patients, 8 of whom had hantavirus antibodies. Serotyping ELISA showed that these 8 patients had high optical density values for Thailand virus. Most of the sera showed that the focus reduction neutralization test titer against Thailand virus was higher than that against Seoul virus, thereby suggesting that the hantaviral antibodies found in Sri Lanka are different from Seoul virus but closely related to Thailand virus. These findings imply that the hantaviral infection found in Kandy, Sri Lanka appears to be due to a virus similar to Thailand virus. Epidemiological analysis revealed that the association between hantavirus infection and socio-demographic characteristics was not statistically significant.