Hantavirus

Hantaviruses are single-stranded, enveloped, negative sense RNA viruses in the Bunyaviridae family.

They normally infect rodents and do not cause disease in these hosts. Humans may become infected with hantaviruses through contact with rodent urine, saliva, or feces. Some strains of hantaviruses cause potentially fatal diseases in humans, such as hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS)—also known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS)— while others have not been associated with known human disease. HPS (HCPS) is a "rare respiratory illness associated with the inhalation of aerosolized rodent excreta (urine and feces) contaminated by hantavirus particles."

Human infections of hantaviruses have almost entirely been linked to human contact with rodent excrement, but recent human-to-human transmission has been reported with the Andes virus in South America.

Hantavirus is named for the Hantan River area in South Korea where an early outbreak was observed. The virus was isolated in the late 1970s by Karl M. Johnson and Ho-Wang Lee.