| Summary: | remains nonpathogenic for humans, although a case of human infection without clinical signs has been described in the Czech Republic (9). Blood serum samples from 710 randomly selected persons>20 years of age from the Czech Republic were screened for antibodies against Puumala and Hantaan antigens with commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) sets manufactured by PROGEN (Biotechnik, Heidelberg, Germany). The Hantaan antigen was used because of its antigenic relatedness with Dobrava virus, which is not included in available commercial ELISA sets. Five participants showed immunoglobulin (Ig) G reactivity to Hantaan virus (cross-reactive with Dobrava antigen), and two participants tested positive for both IgG and IgM antibodies. Two other persons showed IgM reactivity alone. These findings indicate that as many as seven (1.0%) study participants showed reactivity to Hantaan antigen. Eight persons showed IgG reactivity to Puumala antigen, none of them IgM positive. Altogether, 10 (1.4%) study participants were reactive to Puumala antigen. Three persons showed reactivity to both antigens tested. A total of 1,494 small mammals of different Czech regions were screened with ELISA for hantavirus antigen in the lungs. The antigen was detected in the lungs of 101 animals; the highest positivity rate was in Common Voles (Microtus arvalis). The difference in positivity between male and female voles was not statistically significant. The positivity rate was markedly associated with rodent size. With the use of molecular genetic methods (polymerase chain reaction), genotype Tula was identified as the causative agent of infection in rodents. Genotype Puumala was identified in bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) in Moravia. Nucleotide sequences of Dobrava genotype were identified in southern Bohemian rodents (K. Krivanec, pers. comm.).
|
|---|