Korean Hemorrhagic Fever

Abstract

A clinical entity, Korean hemorrhagic fever, also known as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) occurs in humans over an enormous area in Eurasia. It appears to be a zoonosis, but major differences or paradoxes exist regarding the mode of transmission or the ecology of the infection in various areas. The critical question is whether HFRS is 1 disease, with a single etiologic agent over its entire range, or whether it is a syndrome, with a uniform clinicopathologic response to any series of different etiologic agents and with several means of transmission and a variety of ecologic factors. The reports in the literature that provide the laboratory data supporting the contention that the disease in all of these foci is due to a single virus are all ultimately based upon the studies that Lee et al. cite as being unconfirmed. It is therefore hoped that research will soon be undertaken, using the new reproducible system of Lee et al. to resolve these important problems.