5.Hantavirus: Threat of Infectious Disease by Rodents

VetPubHealth Journal ISSUE 17 IVSA Standing Committe on One Health April 2020 Hantavirus:Threat of Infectious Disease by Rodents Rabin Dhakal Everyone is in fear, everywhere there is lock down, every sector is in silence and this is how the threat of disease is like. Like COVID-19 in this crucial year 2020, there was a threat of disease named Hantavirus( Orthohantavirus) in 1993. It is a single stranded, enveloped, negative sense RNAVirus which normally infect rodents, but do not cause disease in them. ORIGIN: There is place known as “The Four Corners” in southwestern United States, in an area shared b y Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah where in May 1993 a young , physically healthy Navajo man suffering from shortness of breath was rushed to a hospital in New Mexico and died rapidly. Going thoroughly to the case it was found that the young man’s fiancée had died a few days ago showing similar symptoms which became a piece of information that proved key to discovering the disease. As more people were found in later days who all had died after acute respiratory failure , an investigation combing the entire Four Corners region was launched by the New Mexico Office of Medical Investigations (OMI) from which mixture of symptoms and clinical findings pointed it is a new type of influenza and towards some type of virus. From a deep narrow test at molecular level, virologist were able to link the pulmonary syndrome with a virus, in particular a previously unknown type of hantavirus. As researchers had known that all other hantavirus were transmitted to people by rodents, such as mice and rats, they started to trap all rodents during which they decided not to wear protective clothing or masks which could scare the people. But later 1700 rodents being trapped, respirators and protective clothing were worn as they were dissecting them to prepare sample analysis at CDC. In November 1993, the specific hantavirus that caused the Four Corners outbreak was isolated from deer mouse(Peromyscusmaniculatus) .The new virs was called Muerto Canyon virus-later changed to Sin Nombre virus (SNV) which means nameless virus and the new disease caused by the virus was named hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, or HPS. Since 1993, researchers have discovered several hantavirus i.e. Bayou virus, linked to a carrier, the rice rat (Oryzomyspalustris) and Creek Canal virus, whose carrier is cotton rat. Hantavirus is named for the Hantan River area in South Korea where early outbreak was observed and was first isolated in 1976. (source:www.cdc.gov) Transmission: Basic course of transmission Source: Possibilistic.org 16

VetPubHealth Journal ISSUE 17 IVSA Standing Committe on One Health April 2020 Human is infected through contact with rodents urine, saliva or feces. Some strains cause potentially fatal diseases in humans, such as fatal hemorrhagic fever with the renal syndrome (HPS), also known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) which is associated with the inhalation of aerosolized rodent excreta (urine and faces) contaminated by hantavirus particles. SIGNS & SYMPTOMS: •Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. It is also called as Korean hemorrhagic fever, epidemic hemorrhagic fever and nephropathiaepidemica. Its incubation time is two to four weeks in humans before symptoms develop. Their severity depends on the viral load. •Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. It was found in North, Central and South America. the causative agent is yhe Sin Nombre virus carried by deer mice. Prodormal symptoms include flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, muscle pain, headache, and lethary which is characterized by a sudden onset of shortness of breath with rapidly pulmonary edema that is often fatal despite intervention with mechanical ventilation and potent diuretics. The fatality rate is 36%. •Kidney failure, generalized hemorrhage and shock. EPIDEMIOLOGY: Hantavirus infections have been reported from all continents expect Australia. • An outbreak of hemorrhagic fever among American and Korean soldiers during the Korean War (1950-1953) was caused by Hantavirus infections. • Limited transmission via human-tohuman contact has since been shown in Argentina. • In late medieval England a mysterious sweating sickness swept through the country in 1485 for which several scientists theorized that the virus may have been cause of the disease. GENOME: Orthohantavirus are enveloped viruses with a genome that consists of three singlestranded, negative-sense RNA segments designated S (small), M(medium) and L(large). • The L RNA encodes a nucleocapsid (N) protein. • The M RNA encodes a polyprotein that is cotranslationally cleaved to yield the envelope glycoproteins Gn(formerly G1) and Gc(formerly G2). • The L RNA encodes the L protein, which functions as the viral transcriptase\ replicase. PREVENTION: • Eliminate or minimize contact with rodents in the home, workplace or campsite as the virus can be transmitted by rodent saliva, excretions, and bite. • Control rats and mice in areas frequented by humans. • Dispose rodents nests, sealing any cracks and holes in homes. • Vaccine As of 2016, there is no FDA-approved, commercially available vaccine against hantavirus. A vaccine known as hantavax has been under study since 1990. TREATMENT: • Ribavirin drug for HPS and HCPS but its effectiveness remains unknown. • Oxygen and mechanical ventilation during acute pulmonary stage with severe respiratory distress. • Administration of immunotherapy for neutralizing antibodies during acute phases of Hantavirus. 17

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