Preliminary Evidence That Hantaan or a Closely Related Virus is Enzootic in Domestic Rodents

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Abstract
To the Editor: Rodent-borne viral nephropathy1 — known as epidemic hemorrhagic fever in Korea,2 , 3 hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Central Europe and Russia,3 and nephropathia epidemica in Scandinavia4 — has not, to our knowledge, been reported in North America. We present preliminary data suggesting that Hantaan virus, the agent of rodent-borne viral nephropathy in Asia,5 or a closely related virus, infects domestic rats (Rattus norvegicus) in New Orleans, Louisiana.Serum collected from Louisiana rats that had been trapped in the course of surveillance for plague and murine typhus was examined for antibody to Hantaan virus by an indirect fluorescent-antibody . . .