Natural Focal Viral Fevers in the South of the European Part of Russia. Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal syndrome

Abstract

Objective of the study was to determine the modem epizootic and epidemic peculiarities of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in the south of the European part of Russia. Materials and methods. Data of statistical documentation (epidemiological survey of the infectious disease focus, annual summary reports dated 2009-2018) and epizootic monitoring data submitted by the Rospotrebnadzor Administrations and the Centers of Hygiene and Epidemiology in the constituent entities of the Southern and the North Caucasian Federal Districts were used. Descriptive, analytical methods and retrospective epidemiological analysis were applied. Results and discussion. The circulation of hantavirus in the Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions, Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, Republics of Adygeya, Kalmykia and Crimea was confirmed. However, two geographically and genetically isolated groups of hantaviruses circulating in the Volgograd Region and in the mountain-foothill zone of the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygeya were the most epidemiologically significant. Over the period of 2009-2018, 152 HFRS cases with annual fluctuations from 4 to 25 cases were registered. Almost all patients lived in the Volgograd Region (44 cases), where the incidence is caused by the HFRS-Puumala virus, or in the Krasnodar Territory (98 cases), where the HFRS Hantavirus Dobrava-Ap circulates. In HFRS patients with the HFRS-Dobrava-Ap virus severe clinical forms were noted at twice the rate, a fatal outcome in one patient with HFRS-Puumala was recorded. The correct preliminary diagnosis was made for 56.3 per cent of patients in the Volgograd Region and only for 31.7 per cent of patients in the Krasnodar Territory and in the Republic of Adygeya. There are different types of natural HFRS foci in the European south of Russia, they vary by the type of hosts and hantaviruses circulating in them - Puumala, Dobrava, Tula, and Dobrava-Ap. Natural foci where of HFRS-PUU and HFRS-DOB-Ap viruses circulate have high epidemic potential. Severe forms of the HFRS are more often observed in patients with the HFRS-DOB-Ap virus.

Keywords

• hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
• hantaviruses
• epidemiological situation
• natural focus
• epidemiological surveillance
• epidemic hazard
• monitoring