title: Cyclic hantavirus epidemics in humans--predicted by rodent host dynamics.
abstract: Wildlife-originated zoonotic diseases are a major contributor to emerging infectious diseases. Hantaviruses cause thousands of human disease cases annually worldwide, and understanding and predicting human hantavirus epidemics still poses unsolved challenges. Here we studied the three-level relationships between the human disease nephropathia epidemica (NE), its etiological agent Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) and the rodent host of the virus, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). A large and long-term data set (14 years, 2583 human NE cases and 4751 trapped bank voles) indicates that the number of human infections shows both seasonal and multi-annual fluctuations, is influenced by the phase of vole cycle and time of the year, and follows vole abundance with a lag of a few months. Our results suggest that although human hantavirus epidemics are preceded by high sero prevalence in the host population, they may be accurately predicted solely by the population dynamics of the carrier species, even without any knowledge about hantavirus dynamics in the host populations.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. kkallio@liv.ac.uk
authors.forename: Eva R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kallio
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Begon
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Henttonen
authors.forename: Esa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koskela
authors.forename: Tapio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mappes
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vaheri
authors.forename: Olli
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vapalahti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000821:virology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006476:Orthohantavirus / Q000276:immunology; D018778:Hantavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D006480:Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D011157:Population Dynamics; D029262:Puumala virus / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012042:Registries; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D012621:Seasons; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral