User:Mr. Ibrahem/Hantavirus infection

Hantavirus infection can result in a number of forms of disease including hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Symptoms of HFRS generally include headache, abdominal pain, fever, nausea, bleeding, and kidney failure. Symptoms of HPS include tiredness, fever, muscle pain, cough, and shortness of breath. Onset of initial symptoms is generally 1 to 8 weeks following exposure.

HFPS is due to Old World hantaviruses while HPS is due to New World hantaviruses. More than 28 specific hantaviruses cause disease in humans. The disease is typically spread when people breath in air contaminated by rodent droppings. The underlying mechanism of both forms of the disease involves low platelets and leaky blood vessels. Diagnosis is based on blood tests, typically serology.

Treatment is primarily supportive care. This may include oxygen therapy, mechanical ventilation, dialysis, or platelet transfusions. Ribavirin may be useful if given early in HFRS. The risk of death is around 12% with HFRS and around 40% with HPS.

About 100,000 cases of HFRS occur a year, while about 1,000 cases of HPS have been identified since it was first detected in 1993. Descriptions of what is believed to be hantavirus infections date back to around 1000 AD. The virus that causes the disease; however, was only discovered in 1976 in the Hantan River area of South Korea.