Isolation of a Puumala-like Virus from Mus musculus Captured in Yugoslavia and Its Association with Severe Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome

Abstract

An outbreak of severe hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) occurred in 1988 in Pozarevac, Serbia, Yugoslavia. The disease was diagnosed in 4 children and I adult, and I of the children died. Rodents were captured from the same area and virus isolation attempted. A hantavirus, POZ-M1, was isolated from lung tissues of hantavirus antigen-positive Mus musculus. Serology and restriction enzyme digestion of polymerase chain reaction-amplified segments from this virus showed that it was a strain of Puumala (PUU) virus, the causative agent of nephropathia epidemica. While Clethrionomys glareolus is the major rodent host for PUU virus, these results suggest that M. musculus may also play an important role in harboring and transmitting PUU-like viruses. The serologic association of this virus with patients with severe HFRS reaffirms that PUU-like viruses may cause severe disease in addition to the generally mild form normally associated with nephropathia epidemica.