Hantaviruses are rodentborne, emerging viruses that cause life-threatening human diseases in Eurasia and the Americas. We detected hantavirus genome sequences in an African wood mouse (Hylomyscus simus) captured in Sangassou, Guinea. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the genetic material demonstrate a novel hantavirus species, which we propose to name "Sangassou virus."

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Viral RNA was amplified by reverse transcription-PCR from a patient suffering from hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Germany. The virus strain could be assigned to the Dobrava hantavirus (DOBV). This is the first molecular identification of human infection by DOBV in central Europe and the first proof that a virus strain related to the DOBV-Aa lineage, carried by Apodemus agrarius rodents, is able to cause HFRS.Members of the genus Hantavirus (family Bunyaviridae) are rodent-borne "emerging viruses" that are known to cause two human zoonoses, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS). In Europe and Asia, the Hantavirus species Puumala virus (PUUV), Dobrava virus (DOBV), Hantaan virus (HTNV), and Seoul virus (SEOV) cause HFRS, while Sin Nombre virus (SNV), Andes virus (ANDV), and other related viruses represent the causative agents of HCPS in the Americas (8,13,14). DOBV seems to be the most virulent European hantavirus. The severity of DOBV-associated HFRS can reach fatality rates of up to 12%, as reported from southeast Europe (3,11 Viruses, abstr. 289, 2003).It has been proposed that the DOBV species forms at least two genetic branches, DOBV-Af and DOBV-Aa, that are found in A. flavicollis and A. agrarius hosts, respectively (7, 16). Whereas in southeast Europe, highly related DOBV-Af nucleotide sequences could be identified in both A. flavicollis animals and HFRS patients (1, 9, 11, 19), the situation in central Europe remained rather unclear. In this geographical region, DOBV nucleotide sequences were predominantly found in A. agrarius (but also in A. flavicollis) rodents, and neutralizing antibodies in the sera of various HFRS patients were typed as DOBV specific (see reference 16 and studies quoted therein). However, the genetic characterization of viral gene sequences from HFRS patients, enabling molecular classification of the virus strain and providing direct evidence of whether DOBV causes HFRS in central Europe, was still missing. Here, we describe the first HFRS case from central Europe associated with the DOBV-Aa lineage from A. agrarius.A 19-year-old man (patient H169) from Ratzeburg, north Germany, was admitted to a local hospital because of increasing appendicitis-like abdominal pain. At admission, he reported a 5-day history of fever (up to 39°C) followed by nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. According to the cardinal symptom of abdominal pain, he was scheduled for appendectomy, until acute renal failure was noticed within the next 3 days and hemodialysis became necessary because of uremic symptoms. Therefore, he was transferred to the University Hospital of Lübeck. Here, the first clinical examinations revealed hepatosplenomegaly and hypertension (systolic blood pressure, 150 mm Hg), while laboratory data showed mild thrombocytopenia and highly elevated levels of creatinine, urea (blood urea nitrogen), and C-reactive protein in serum. Urine analysis demonstrated profound proteinuria and hematuria. At day 9 after onset, a bedside test...