GENETIC IDENTIFICATION OF A HANTAVIRUS ASSOCIATED WITH AN OUTBREAK OFACUTE RESPIRATORY ILLNESS

A mysterious respiratory illness with high mortality was recently repo rted in the southwestern United States. Serologic studies implicated t he hantaviruses, rodent-borne RNA viruses usually associated elsewhere in the world with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. A genetic de tection assay amplified hantavirus-specific DNA fragments from RNA ext racted from the tissues of patients and deer mice (Peromyscus manicula tus) caught at or near patient residences. Nucleotide sequence analysi s revealed the associated virus to be a new hantavirus and provided a direct genetic link between infection in patients and rodents.