Page 43 - ICGES Libro de Resúmenes MAC

Resumen de Conferencias Internacionales (CI)

HANTAVIRUSES: LESSONS LEARNED AND QUESTIONS
CI­08 REMAINING

Gregory E. Glass and James E. Childs
1
2
1 Department of Geography and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of
2
Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA; Department of Epidemiology of Microbial
Diseases, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06520 USA

Diseases caused by hantaviruses have been recognized for more than three
quarters of a century. Typically, recognition of the various presentations, such as
renal or predominantly pulmonary diseases, have occurred unexpectedly and
often under socially stressful conditions such as armed conflicts or significant
economic limitations. Under these circumstances, the rapid identification of the
agents and developing strategies for treatment and control take precedence over
scientific investigations that explore the range of possible mechanisms of action.
The limitation, however, is that these generally accepted ‘facts’ may be less well
supported by the data than most research questions concerning other micro­
organisms. We briefly review the history of hantavirus discovery, the general
understanding of the group and areas of study that might deserve further
examination with modern tools of epidemiology, virology and molecular biology.

43