THE HANTAVIRUSES OF EUROPE - FROM THE BEDSIDE TO THE BENCH

In Europe, hantavirus disease can hardly be called an emerging zoonosi s; it is rather a rediscovered disease. Since 1934 an epidemic conditi on with primarily renal involvement has been described in Sweden. Nowa days, hundreds to thousands of cases per year are registered in Fennos candia, fluctuating with the numbers of the specific Arvicoline-rodent reservoir, the red bank vote, which carries the main European serotyp e, Puumala (PUU). In the early 1980s, the rat-transmitted serotype, Se oul (SEO), caused laboratory outbreaks throughout Europe, and recent r eports also suggest sporadic, wild rat-spread hantavirus disease. In t he Balkans, at least four serotypes are present simultaneously: PUU, S EO, the ''Korean'' prototype Hantaan (HTN) or HTN-like types, and Dobr ava, the latter causing a mortality rate of up to 20%. Moreover, recen t genotyping studies have disclosed several PUU-like genotypes spread in Europe and/or Russia by other genera of the Arvicoline-rodent subfa mily: Tula, Tobetsu, Khabarovsk, and Topografov. Their importance for human pathogenicity is still unclear, but serologic cross-reactions wi th PUU antigen might have caused their misdiagnosis as PUU-infections in the past.