Hantavirus


Description of virus that causes the disease.

Belongs to bunyaviridae family
Three single strand RNA segments
  • strands are classified as small, medium and large
  • L strand is 6500-6550 nucleotides long
  • M strand is about 3600 nucleotides long
  • S strand is about 1700 nucleotides long
100-270 nm in diameter
Has distinctive spikes, surrouded by 5 nm lipid layer
imscn041806_02_02.jpg
micrograph of hantavirus

Viral Specificity:

It affects the heart and lungs
It goes through the lytic cycle
Endothelial cells and macrophages in the lungs get infected
They replicate in the host cells cytoplasm
Specific to humans, other animals-besides rodents- are not known to carry the virus

Symptoms and progression of the disease:

Incubation period lasts 2-4 weeks

Five phases:

Febrile phase (3-7 days):
  • fever of up to 104,
  • chills,
  • sweaty palms,
  • diarrhea,
  • malaise,
  • headahes,
  • nausea,
  • abdominal and back pain,
  • respiratory problems,
  • gastro-intestinal problems

Hypotensive phase (2 days):
  • blood platelet levels drop,
  • symptoms may lead to tachycardia and hypoxemia (decreased amount of oxygen in blood)

Oliguric phase (3-7 days):
  • renal failure,
  • proteinuria.

Diuretic phase (couples days - couple weeks):
  • diuresis of 3L-6L lost per day.

Convalescent phase:
  • this is the recovery stage were symptoms start improving.

Common Methods of Transmission:

Transmitted by infected rodents through urine, droppings, and saliva
Inhalation of aerosolized virus
Person to person transmission does not occur
hanta.gif
a mouse carrying the hantavirus

Treatment and Prevention:

Prevention
  • extermination of rodents in houses
  • avoid exposure to rodent feces

Treatment
  • ribavin, an anti-viral drug that may help
  • early hospitolization is the best treatment, the patient will be monitered carefully and be given life sustaining fluids and medications
  • no vaccines available

Miscellaneous:

First recognized by Dr. Lee Ho Wang, of South Korea, during the Korean War
New version of virus was identified by Terry Yates, a professor at University of New Mexico

Resources accessed:


http://www.ictvdb.org/ICTVdb/00.011.0.02.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hantavirus
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hanta/hps/noframes/phys/technicalinfoindex.htm