[Hantaviruses are widespread infectious agents carried by different rodent species. The majority of them belongs to viral zoonotic pathogens, sometimes causing severe human infections. Hantaviruses inflict hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Eurasia and supposedly in Africa, and hantavirus cardio-pulmonary syndrome in the Americas. The relationship between the virus and its host species is a result of a several million year co-evolution. Although virus replication is most intense in the infected rodents' lungs, these animals do not develop disease, instead they carry and spread the pathogens throughout their lifetime by body fluids. In the majority of infections, the virus gets into the human body by vaporization of rodent body fluids or by direct contact. In Europe, Puumala (PUUV) and Dobrava-Belgrade (DOBV) hantaviruses are the most abundant hantaviral infectious agents. There are numerous studies described the presence of different genotipes of hantaviruses circulating in Hungary. Although the number of clinical and epidemiolgical studies are limited, the medical importance - especially in a high risk population - of these viruses are unqustionable. There are a variety of methods to identify hantaviral infections. Molecular biological methods (RT-PCR) - also enabling genotyping - and virus neutralization tests proved to be the most reliable tools. The latter technique requires virus culturing, which can only be carried out in high-containment laboratories.]
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