Fiebres Hemorrágicas por Hantavirus en Venezuela (Hemorrhagic Fevers by Hantavirus in Venezuela)

The Hantavirus belonging to the Bunyaviridae family, contain 30 virus at least, including those that cause Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome and the Hantavirus associated with Lung Syndrome. The Hantavirus has its fundamental reservoir in rodents and it is attributed to each virus one kind of a rodent as main reservoir, but it has been demonstrated that one Hantavirus can infect different species of rodents and one rodent species can be infected by several Hantavirus. Another important characteristic of the Hantavirus is that they establish a chronic infection for life in its natural hosts, denominated persistent tolerant infection, that result in a viremia with continuous elimination of the virus, through urine, feces and saliva. The incidence for sex and age of infected hosts is related directly with the practice of rural activities and direct contact with the rodents or his excretes. The laboratory diagnosis can be carried out by techniques such as virus isolation and identification, detection class specific IgM and IgG antibodies and viral genome detection by molecular biology. The Hantavirus constitutes an important problem of public health, due to their wide distribution world, high infectious potential and capacity of producing severe illnesses in the human