Fatal Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in an Adolescent

Abstract

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a recently recognized viral zoonosis characterized by a febrile prodrome progressing to severe noncardiogenic pulmonary edema.1-4 This syndrome is caused by at least three newly described hantaviruses: the first, Sin Nombre virus, is the Southwestern hantavirus that caused an outbreak of respiratory failure during the summer of 1993; the second, Black Creek Canal virus, caused a case of HPS in Florida; and the third hantavirus was identified in lung tissue from a patient in Louisiana. Diagnosis is by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) serology with elevated immunoglobulin M (IgM) titers against heterologous and homologous hantaviral antigens, positive immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed tissue, or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification of hantaviral nucleotide sequence from frozen tissue.