Diseases (Feb 2023)

A Brief History of Bunyaviral Family <i>Hantaviridae</i>

  • Jens H. Kuhn,
  • Connie S. Schmaljohn

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases11010038
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
p. 38

Abstract

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The discovery of Hantaan virus as an etiologic agent of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in South Korea in 1978 led to identification of related pathogenic and nonpathogenic rodent-borne viruses in Asia and Europe. Their global distribution was recognized in 1993 after connecting newly discovered relatives of these viruses to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the Americas. The 1971 description of the shrew-infecting Hantaan-virus-like Thottapalayam virus was long considered an anomaly. Today, this virus and many others that infect eulipotyphlans, bats, fish, rodents, and reptiles are classified among several genera in the continuously expanding family Hantaviridae.

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