engleski

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome-diagnostic tests

Hantaviruses are a group of viruses which are persistently hosted by populations of small rodents. Several hantaviruses can also infect humans causing one of two manifest diseases: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe and Asia or hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) at both American continents. Until reliable diagnostic tools became available hantavirus infections were probably highly under-diagnosed. Due to the short-term viremia and difficult detection of virus and viral RNA in infected humans, the diagnostics of human hantavirus infections is mainly based on serological assays. Nowadays, for serological confirmation of hantavirus infection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and/or immunofluorescence assay to detect specific IgM and IgG antibodies are routinely used. However, in recent years, great improvement in routine diagnostics was achieved by development of immunochromatographic rapid tests. As in certain geographical areas several different hantaviruses co-exist identification of hantavirus type/species which caused the infection is also important, not only from an epidemiological but also medical point of view, as they can significantly differ in their pathogenicity. Besides the neutralization assay, RT-PCR and sequencing provide clear information on the causative virus species. Rapid, reliable and specific diagnostics can significantly contribute to the adequate treatment of the patients as well as establishment of effective and rapid epidemiological measures during the epidemics of HFRS.

hantaviruses; HFRS; diagnostics

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