Hantavirus Infections, China | CDC EID

EID Journal Home > Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010

Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010
Article Section
Hantavirus Infections in Humans and Animals, China
Yong-Zhen Zhang, Yang Zou, Zhen F. Fu, and Alexander Plyusnin
Author affiliations: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China (Y.-Z. Zhang, Y. Zou); University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA (Z.F. Fu); and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (A. Plyusnin)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a serious public health problem in the People's Republic of China. Although 7 sero/genotypes of hantaviruses have been found in rodents, only Hantaan virus (carried by Apodemus agrarius mice) and Seoul virus (carried by Rattus norvegicus rats) reportedly cause disease in humans. During 1950–2007, a total of 1,557,622 cases of HFRS in humans and 46,427 deaths (3%) were reported in China. HFRS has been reported in 29 of 31 provinces in China. After implementation of comprehensive preventive measures, including vaccination, in the past decade in China, incidence of HFRS has dramatically decreased; only 11,248 HFRS cases were reported in 2007. Mortality rates also declined from the highest level of 14.2% in 1969 to ≈1% during 1995–2007. However, the numbers of HFRS cases and deaths in China remain the highest in the world.
During the past decade, hantaviruses have gained worldwide attention as emerging zoonotic pathogens (1–3 ). Hantaviruses, which belong to the family Bunyaviridae, genus Hantavirus, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses. Transmission among rodents and from rodents to humans generally occurs through inhalation of aerosolized excreta (4 ). In their natural hosts (rodents of the families Muridae and Cricetidae), hantaviruses establish a persistent infection, which causes no apparent harm (5 ). In humans, however, hantaviruses cause 2 diseases: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Eurasia, and hantavirus (cardio)pulmonary syndrome in North and South America (6 ). Each year worldwide, 60,000–100,000 HFRS cases are reported, mostly from the People's Republic of China (7 ).

To date, 7 sero/genotypes of hantaviruses have been identified in China (8 ). Of these, only Hantaan virus (HTNV), carried by Apodemus agrarius mice, and Seoul virus (SEOV), carried by Rattus norvegicus rats, cause HFRS (8 –11 ). Despite intensive measures implemented in the past 3 decades, HFRS remains a major public health problem in China (10 ).

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Suggested Citation for this Article
Suggested citation for this article: Zhang Y-Z, Zou Y, Fu ZF, Plyusnin A. Hantavirus infections in humans and animals, China. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Aug [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/8/1195.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1608.090470