Andes virus
Encyclopedia
Andes virus is a hantavirus
Hantavirus
Hantaviruses are negative sense RNA viruses in the Bunyaviridae family. Humans may be infected with hantaviruses through rodent bites, urine, saliva or contact with rodent waste products...

, which, in South America, is a major causative agent of Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS or HPS).

Background

HCPS due to the Andes virus infection, has a case fatality percentage of about 25–35% in Argentina and of 37% in Chile. ANDV, lineage ANDV-Sout, is the only hantavirus
Hantavirus
Hantaviruses are negative sense RNA viruses in the Bunyaviridae family. Humans may be infected with hantaviruses through rodent bites, urine, saliva or contact with rodent waste products...

 for which a person-to-person transmission has been described. Several ANDV strains
Strain (biology)
In biology, a strain is a low-level taxonomic rank used in three related ways.-Microbiology and virology:A strain is a genetic variant or subtype of a micro-organism . For example, a "flu strain" is a certain biological form of the influenza or "flu" virus...

 are co-circulating in Argentina, e.g. Bermejo, Lechiguanas, Maciel, Oran and Pergamino, whereas HCPS cases were also reported in Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Only for Chile and Argentina can they be strictly associated
with ANDV.

In Argentina and Chile, the long-tailed rice rat, Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, and other species of the genus Oligoryzomys represent the reservoir for ANDV. Another unique characteristic of ANDV is the availability of an animal model. ANDV causes lethal disease in the Syrian Hamster that closely models the course of disease progression in humans, including a rapid progression from first symptoms to death, including fluid in the pleural cavity and the histopathology of the lungs and spleen. Lethality of ANDV in hamsters is not true of all HCPS viruses, as challenge with Sin Nombre virus
Sin Nombre virus
The Sin Nombre virus is the prototypical etiologic agent of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome ....

 shows no symptoms of disease. The availability of this model allows for the study of various drugs and other treatments that may have an impact on the treatment of all HCPS-causing hantavirus
Hantavirus
Hantaviruses are negative sense RNA viruses in the Bunyaviridae family. Humans may be infected with hantaviruses through rodent bites, urine, saliva or contact with rodent waste products...

infections.
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