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Mice, rats, and other rodents can transmit hantaviruses – dangerous germs that sometimes cause fatal hemorrhagic fever, damaging the lungs or kidneys. Infection occurs, for example, by inhaling dust with animal faeces. The pandemic potential of hantaviruses is assessed as low, but they have characteristics that make them considered very serious. It is about the long incubation time and the constant emergence of new species, which means that viruses are constantly evolving. In addition, there is a lack of drugs and vaccines to fight hantaviruses.
- The germs transmit mice, rats and other rodents. Hantaviruses can damage the lungs or kidneys
- The diseases they cause are often fatal
- There are two species of hantaviruses in Poland
- You can become infected, for example, by inhaling dust with animal faeces. Good drugs and vaccines are lacking
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Old and new hantaviruses
Recently, the world has heard that there is an outbreak of a kind of hemorrhagic fever in the Chinese city of Xi’an. A few months earlier, German services reported almost XNUMX similar infections since the beginning of last year, mainly in Baden-Württemberg. The region has struggled with this problem before. It’s about hantaviruses.
We calm down immediately – this is not a new pandemic, although GAVI, which deals with vaccinations in poor countries, lists hantaviruses among the potential threats to global health.
It is worth knowing what these nevertheless dangerous germs are and how to avoid them. The infection may be mild, but you may develop flu-like symptoms. There may also be erythema on the face, pain in the abdomen and kidney area, or bloody ecchymosis (small rash), a drop in pressure.
Depending on the specific type of virus, severe diseases are also not uncommon. One of them is haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). This disease, which causes acute kidney failure, occurs mainly in Europe and Asia. Viruses can also cause Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HFPS), which occurs primarily in the Americas.
Further part below the video.
How do hantaviruses spread?
Fortunately, the risk concerns mainly selected social groups. You can get infected from rodents. For example, German cases are mainly due to contact with forest voles. Other animals that transmit germs include, for example, a field mouse, a forest mouse, a wandering rat, and a voles. The infection occurs through contact with the animal’s faeces, urine or saliva. So you can get infected, for example, by inhaling the dust containing these secretions. Less often, the cause of the disease is a bite.
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There are two such viruses in Poland – Dobrava with a mortality rate of 5-15 percent. and Puumala with a mortality of 0,5-1 percent. Both germs cause hemorrhagic fever with kidney syndrome.
Hantaviruses are, fortunately, rarely transmitted from person to person, although unfortunately there is such a possibility. For example, researchers at the Argentine National Institute of Infectious Diseases reported transmissions of one of the hantaviruses, the Andes virus, during the wave of disease in southwestern Argentina.
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Medicines for hantaviruses are lacking
Human civilization has little methods of fighting these germs. Although there is a vaccine against the viruses that cause pulmonary syndrome, it has only been approved in China and South Korea due to limited evidence. There are no specific drugs to deal with hantaviruses, although the antiviral ribavirin is used.
The basis is therefore prevention – preventing the presence of rodents in the household, in places where food is stored and avoiding contact with them. If there is a risk that rodents have entered a room, proper cleaning will help, but with certain precautions – you need, among others, take care not to inhale dust with animal faeces.
New research on hantaviruses
Meanwhile, scientists keep searching. A team from Our Country’s Friendship University in the middle of last year reported the development of a potential drug that is potent against hantaviruses that cause kidney damage. The described compound blocks the multiplication of the germ, and scientists obtained it from natural substances called terpenes.
«Research on antiviral drugs based on terpenes (hydrocarbons found in abundance in many plants and essential oils) is very promising. Earlier, we discovered a new class of terpenoids active against the influenza virus. This was especially true of camphor-based hydrazones. Now our goal is to find new drugs based on natural terpenes specifically active against the viruses that cause hantavirus kidney syndrome “- says Prof. Fyodor Zubkov.
Researchers received 12 substances, one of which turned out to be particularly valuable. They tested it on a pseudovirus system – germs similar to hantaviruses but harmless. It was found to be five times more potent than the currently used ribavirin.
Other approaches are also tested. For example, Chilean scientists isolated antibodies from the blood of a sick person that successfully fought the lung-damaging Andean virus in animal tests. This is particularly good news because it is this germ that can, to some extent, spread from person to person. So there is hope that in the near future it will be possible to help the sick better. Meanwhile, it is worth remembering about caution.
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