Hantavirus on Navaho Reervation

[Gary Ross]

Gary Ross <bkoch at together.net> wrote:
>
> About a year or so ago, there was a break of a disease on the Navaho
> reservation that was quite concerning.  The last I heard, it was 
> thought to be a hantavirus which I believe is serologically closest to
> a bunyavirus (such as oropouche).
> 
> Does anyone have any further information on this?  Was a virus
> definitively isolated?  What were the symptoms?  Was it hemmorhagic?
> 
> Anyone know much about hantaviruses (or bunyaviruses)?
> 
> -- Gary

I'm actually following up on my own posting -- I found a brief piece
on the CDC WWW server:

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), a newly recognized illness
characterized by an influenza-like prodrome followed by the acute
onset of respiratory failure, was first identified in the southwestern
US in June 1993 during the investigation of a cluster of unexplained
deaths.  A new hantavirus (Sin Nombre virus) and a rodent reservoir
for the virus (the deer mouse [Peromyscus maniculatus]) were 
identified.  As of August 31, 1994, national surveillance for HPS...
has identified 91 confirmed cases of HPS (with 48 deaths) in 20 states
(case fatality rate: 53%).

I thought others might be interested in this information.

Anybody know anything about hantaviruses in general?

-- Gary