United States: Recent findings reveal that Swedish rodents are carrying a pathogen capable of transmitting to humans, potentially leading to hemorrhagic fever.
Scientists have recently identified this virus in illness cases reported miles away from traditional monitoring areas, putting officials on high alert.
About the Detected Virus
First identified in southern Sweden’s Scania County in October 2018, the virus was linked to a case of nephropathia epidemica, believed to be caused by the Puumala virus from bank voles, according to the-sun.com.
Nephropathia epidemica, or ‘vole fever,’ is another particular type of disease that is known not to be dangerous yet can lead to hemorrhagic fever in humans.
Haemorrhagic fevers are diseases, which are severe and life threatening and are all caused by different viruses and those include the yellow fever, Ebola virus and the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
Physicians were surprised that this disease was present near that area, especially since vole fever had only be observed in the northern region of Great Britain which is more than 500 km south from where the disease was previously spotted.
A second case in 2020 also occurred in Scania County, Sweden. Both patients were infected locally, not through travel.
Symptoms of the Disease
Symptoms resemble hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), including fever, general weakness, hemorrhagic signs like nosebleeds, and impaired kidney function.
Ongoing Research on Vole Fever Infection
Even though the two patients treated their infections and got well, it developed researchers from the Uppsala University to research the probable causes as to why infections of vole fever were surface this far away from where such a disease is usually reported to happen.
They took samples of bank voles from Scania county and examined whether the viscera of the catch from close vicinity to the patient residences were positive for hantavirus.
Hantavirus is a current that is a subgroup of the hantavirus group that specifically affects rodents like mice, rats, and voles.
Certain hantaviruses can infect people and cause two kinds of diseases. The major complications distinguishing HFRS are those affecting the kidneys, while in HPS, disease involvement is based on respiratory manifestations.
It is stated by the scientists based at the University of Uppsala that these two types of diseases have been regulated by the Act of Communicable Diseases because they can cause severe negative repercussions and fatality.
HFRS is also observed in North and Central Europe with rather mild symptoms, which is caused by the strain of the hantavirus – Puumala.
Still, the studies that have been performed suggest that this particular hantavirus also causes clinically severe HRFS, which, in certain instances, may result in the demise of the afflicted subject.
The vole fever disease outbreaks in Sweden are about between 100 and 450 patients who need to be admitted into hospitals annually, and this is only confining to the northern region only.