Complexity of Hantavirus, its Traits and Treatment

Hantavirus is also called as orthohantavirus and are singlestranded, enveloped, negative RNA virus [(-) ss RNA viruses]. It was named after Hantan River area in South Korea where its occurrence was observed and was isolated in 1976 by Karl M. Johnson and Ho-Wang Lee. There are many strains of Hantavirus; normally rodents are the carrier of these virus. Various strains carried by different rodent species are familiar to cause various types of illness in human, most remarkably, Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) which was identified during the Korean War – and Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) which was discovered in 1993 outbreak in the Southwestern United States. Serious HFRS causes acute kidney failure, while HPS gets filling lungs with fluid (edema). Mortality rate of HFRS is 1 to 15 percent while HPS is 38 percent. One of the remarkable outbreaks of Hantavirus in United States was observed of various strains at Yosemite National Park in late 2012