PHYLOGENETICALLY DISTINCT HANTAVIRUS IMPLICATED IN A CASE OF HANTAVIRUS PULMONARY SYNDROME IN THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED-STATES

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is an acute respiratory illness wi th high mortality. It is caused by a newly described New World hantavi rus known as Four Corners virus (FCV). Nearly all cases of HPS have oc curred in the western United States. The etiologic agents in those cas es have been closely related to each other, based upon comparisons of their genetic sequences. We have molecularly cloned the S genomic segm ent of a hantavirus (RI-1) implicated in a case on HPS in the northeas tern United States. Nucleotide sequence analysis shows that the RI-l v irus has many similarities to FCV, but is clearly distinct from the we stern forms of that virus. These data suggest that HPS can be caused b y multiple agents that together form a distinctive evolutionary clade. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.