Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in northwestern Argentina: circulation of Laguna Negra virus associated with Calomys callosus.
The purpose of this study was to characterize the hantaviruses circulating in northwestern Argentina. Human and rodent studies were conducted in Yuto, where most cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) occur. Partial virus genome sequences were obtained from the blood of 12 cases of HPS, and from the lungs of 4 Calomys callosus and 1 Akodon simulator. Phylogenetic analysis showed that three genotypes associated with HPS circulate in Yuto. Laguna Negra (LN) virus, associated with C. laucha in Paraguay, was identified for the first time in Argentina; it was recovered from human cases and from C. callosus samples. The high sequence identity between human and rodent samples implicated C. callosus as the primary rodent reservoir for LN virus in Yuto. The genetic analysis showed that the Argentinian LN virus variant differed 16.8% at the nucleotide level and 2.9% at the protein level relative to the Paraguayan LN virus. The other two hantavirus lineages identified were the previously known Bermejo and Oran viruses.
Levis
Silvana
S
Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas Dr. Julio I. Maiztegui, Monteagudo 2510, 2700 Pergamino, Buenos Aires, Argentina. inevh@satlink.com
Garcia
Jorge
J
Pini
Noemí
N
Calderón
Gladys
G
Ramírez
Josefina
J
Bravo
Daniel
D
St Jeor
Stephen
S
Ripoll
Carlos
C
Bego
Mariana
M
Lozano
Elena
E
Barquez
Rubén
R
Ksiazek
Thomas G
TG
Enria
Delia
D
D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D005838:Genotype; D006476:Orthohantavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018804:Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012377:Rodentia / Q000821:virology*
D012367:RNA, Viral