Glossary
An auditable glossary of hantavirus terminology, surveillance vocabulary, and intelligence-tradecraft terms used on this site. Cross-linked into the relevant topic pages.
- ANDV
- Andes virus — the only orthohantavirus with documented person-to-person transmission. Endemic to southern South America. Implicated in the 2026 MV Hondius cluster.
- Apodemus
- Genus of Old World field mice. Apodemus agrarius is the reservoir for Hantaan virus and Saaremaa virus; Apodemus flavicollis for Dobrava-Belgrade virus.
- Berkeley Protocol
- International protocol for digital open-source investigations developed by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center. Defines chain-of-custody requirements for OSINT used in legal proceedings. Every HORIZON record carries a Berkeley-compliant SHA-256 hash.
- CDC HAN
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Alert Network — official channel for emergent public-health alerts. Indexed by HORIZON.
- Case-fatality rate (CFR)
- Proportion of confirmed cases of a disease that die. For hantavirus disease ranges from under 1 percent (Puumala) to 30–50 percent (Andes virus HPS).
- Convalescent plasma
- Therapeutic transfusion of antibody-rich plasma from recovered patients. Investigated for Andes virus HPS with suggestive efficacy.
- DOBV
- Dobrava-Belgrade virus — causes the most severe HFRS in Europe. Reservoir: yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis).
- ECDC
- European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Authoritative European public-health agency; indexed for surveillance updates and weekly Communicable Disease Threats Reports.
- ECMO
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Veno-arterial ECMO has improved Andes-virus HPS outcomes in Chile and Argentina.
- Endemic
- Continuously present in a population at a baseline level. Sin Nombre virus is endemic in the US Four Corners region.
- Epizootic
- Outbreak of disease in animal populations. Cyclical Puumala-virus epizootics in bank-vole populations drive human-case peaks across northern Europe.
- Four Corners outbreak
- 1993 cluster of HPS cases in the US Four Corners region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah) that led to the identification of Sin Nombre virus. The outbreak is the historical anchor of US hantavirus surveillance.
- HFRS
- Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome. Old World hantavirus syndrome dominated by acute kidney injury and bleeding. Caused by Hantaan, Seoul, Puumala, Dobrava-Belgrade, and Saaremaa viruses.
- HORIZON
- The platform you are reading. Live hantavirus outbreak surveillance with audit-grade source provenance, operated by 79th Unit Limited under CC BY 4.0. Aggregates 65+ sources including the Oxford Kraemer Lab MV Hondius individual-level ANDV line list and the NCBI RefSeq Orthohantavirus reference genome set (HantaNet).
- HPS
- Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. New World hantavirus syndrome dominated by non-cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and circulatory collapse. Caused by Andes, Sin Nombre, Bayou, Black Creek Canal, Laguna Negra, and Choclo viruses.
- HTNV
- Hantaan virus — prototype hantavirus, severe HFRS in east Asia. Reservoir: striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius).
- HantaNet
- Reference set of Orthohantavirus genome sequences curated by the CDC Molecular Epidemiology and Bioinformatics Team (described in PMC10675615). Covers S, M, and L segments for all NCBI RefSeq Orthohantavirus reference sequences. HORIZON ingests the full HantaNet set daily, cross-linking case records to reference genome sequences.
- Hantavax
- Green Cross hantavirus vaccine licensed in South Korea, covering Hantaan virus. The only licensed hantavirus vaccine; not approved in the EU or US.
- ICD 206
- US intelligence-community standard formal-citation format. HORIZON uses ICD 206 Source Reference Citation format on every record.
- Immunoblast
- Activated lymphocyte. Circulating immunoblasts on peripheral blood smear are part of the hantavirus diagnostic triad (with thrombocytopenia and left-shifted white-cell count).
- Individual line list
- Per-person epidemiological dataset where each row represents one patient or suspected case. The Oxford Kraemer Lab MV Hondius line list (CC0) provides 28-column individual-level resolution for the 2026 ANDV cruise ship cluster — the highest epidemiological granularity available for that outbreak.
- MV Hondius
- Polar expedition cruise ship operated by Oceanwide Expeditions (IMO 9818709, MMSI 244327000, Netherlands flag). Centre of the 2026 ANDV cluster tracked at /outbreaks/mv-hondius-2026.
- NATO Admiralty Scale
- Source-evaluation framework per NATO AJP-2.1 with two axes: reliability (A confirmed to F unreliable) and credibility (1 confirmed to 6 cannot be judged). HORIZON tags every source with both.
- Nephropathia epidemica
- Mild HFRS caused by Puumala virus. Endemic across Scandinavia, Baltic states, and central Europe; case-fatality under 1 percent.
- Nextstrain
- Open-source genomic epidemiology platform that provides real-time analysis of pathogen evolution. Andrew Rambaut (University of Edinburgh) is a co-developer. The Oxford Kraemer Lab MV Hondius line list was developed in collaboration with the Nextstrain group.
- Orthohantavirus
- Genus of viruses within family Hantaviridae. All human-pathogenic hantaviruses belong to this genus.
- Oxford Kraemer Lab
- Laboratory of Dr Moritz Kraemer at the University of Oxford Department of Biology. Maintains the MV Hondius individual-level ANDV line list (CC0, github.com/kraemer-lab/Hondius_hantavirus_h2026), the highest-resolution epidemiological dataset available for the 2026 Andes virus cruise ship cluster. Co-created with Sam Scarpino and Andrew Rambaut (University of Edinburgh / Nextstrain).
- PAHO
- Pan American Health Organization — WHO regional office for the Americas. Authoritative source for hantavirus surveillance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- PUUV
- Puumala virus — Europe's commonest hantavirus, causing mild renal syndrome (nephropathia epidemica). Reservoir: bank vole (Myodes glareolus).
- Pathoplexus
- Genomic database for emerging pathogen sequences, linked to the Oxford Kraemer Lab MV Hondius line list via accession identifiers for each tracked case.
- Peromyscus
- Genus of New World mice. Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse) is the reservoir for Sin Nombre virus across the US Four Corners and beyond.
- ProMED
- Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases — global outbreak reporting service of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. Critical early-warning feed for outbreak detection.
- Ribavirin
- Guanosine analogue antiviral with demonstrated benefit in early HFRS (especially Hantaan virus) but limited efficacy in HPS. Used off-label in Latin America for ANDV.
- SEOV
- Seoul virus — globally distributed via Rattus rodents. Causes mild HFRS. Outbreaks documented in pet-rat fanciers in the US and UK.
- Serotype
- Distinct virus variant defined by antigenic profile. HORIZON tracks 12 orthohantavirus serotypes of public-health concern.
- Sin Nombre virus (SNV)
- Original North American HPS-causing hantavirus identified in 1993. Reservoir: deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus).
- Thrombocytopenia
- Low platelet count (below 150,000/μL). Universal feature of severe hantavirus infection — part of the diagnostic triad.
- Ushuaia
- Argentine port at the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego. Suspected exposure location for the MV Hondius cluster. ANDV reservoir Oligoryzomys longicaudatus is endemic in the area.
- Vascular leak
- Pathological extravasation of fluid from capillaries — the defining pathophysiology of hantavirus disease. Drives pulmonary oedema in HPS and shock in HFRS.
- WHO DON
- World Health Organization Disease Outbreak News — the authoritative global outbreak bulletin. HORIZON parses every DON for relevance and ingests case counts.