A retrospective study of hantavirus infection in Kinmen, Taiwan.

Abstract

In this retrospective study, 140 serum samples collected from 85 scrub typhus-negative patients in Kinmen Island in 2000 were tested for antibodies to hantavirus using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Seven patients (8.23%) were confirmed as having hantavirus infection as demonstrated by increased hantavirus-specific immunoglobulin M and/or immunoglobulin G antibodies in their convalescent serum samples. Analysis of indirect immunofluorescence assay showed that Seoul type was the etiologic agent. Serosurvey of rodents caught in the resident township of these hantavirus-infected human cases showed that the seroprevalence of antibodies to hantavirus among Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, and R. flavipectus was 50% (4/8), 20% (1/5), and 2% (7/348), respectively. Molecular analysis showed that these reservoir hosts carried a Seoul type hantavirus. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating indigenous hantavirus cases in Kinmen.

• Authors: Ling Chow, Pei-Yun Shu, Jyh-Hsiung Huang, Hsi-Chieh Wang, Shu-Fen Chang, Hsiu-Ying Lu, Ting-Hsiang Lin
• Journal: Journal of microbiology, immunology, and infection = Wei mian yu gan ran za zhi (J Microbiol Immunol Infect) Vol. 38 Issue 5 Pg. 343-9 (Oct 2005) ISSN: 1684-1182 [Print] England
• PMID: 16211143 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antibodies, Viral
• Immunoglobulin G
• Immunoglobulin M

Topics

• Adult
• Animals
• Antibodies, Viral (blood)
• Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
• Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect
• Orthohantavirus (classification)
• Hantavirus Infections (epidemiology)
• Humans
• Immunoglobulin G (blood)
• Immunoglobulin M (blood)
• Male
• Mice
• Molecular Sequence Data
• Polymerase Chain Reaction
• Rats
• Retrospective Studies
• Rodentia (virology)
• Sequence Analysis, DNA
• Seroepidemiologic Studies
• Taiwan (epidemiology)