Hantaviruses are a family of rodent-borne RNA viruses (genus Orthohantavirus, family Hantaviridae) capable of causing two distinct clinical syndromes in humans: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), predominantly in the Americas, and Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS), predominantly across Eurasia. HORIZON tracks every known orthohantavirus of public-health concern and aggregates outbreak signal from WHO, CDC, ECDC, PAHO, ProMED, peer-reviewed literature, and open news — with full audit-grade source provenance on every record.
Hantaviruses are tri-segmented negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses in the family Hantaviridae. Each serotype is associated with a specific rodent reservoir species — host specificity is so strong that co-divergence with the rodent lineage is one of the dominant evolutionary features of the family. Humans become infected when they inhale virus aerosolised from rodent excreta (urine, faeces, saliva) or rarely via direct contact with infected animals. With one exception — Andes virus — hantaviruses do not transmit person-to-person.
The 2026 MV Hondius cluster is the flagship investigation currently surfaced on the HORIZON live map. The cluster traces back to suspected pre-departure exposure during a wildlife excursion near Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina), with Andes virus (ANDV) confirmed by PCR on the South African case. Authoritative counts come from WHO Disease Outbreak News 2026-DON600 and ECDC surveillance updates; news corroboration is layered with NATO Admiralty Scale ratings and dual confidence scoring.
HORIZON surfaces a dedicated page per orthohantavirus serotype of documented public-health concern. Each page details the reservoir species, endemic range, syndrome type, case-fatality estimate, transmission profile, and links to authoritative WHO/CDC sources.
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) · CFR 30 to 50 percent
Andes virus is the most lethal hantavirus serotype recognised in the Americas. It is endemic to the southern cone of South America and is the primary serotype implicated in the 202…
Read more on ANDV →Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) · CFR approximately 38 percent
Sin Nombre virus is the principal cause of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in North America. First identified in 1993 during the Four Corners outbreak, it is carried by the deer mous…
Read more on SNV →Nephropathia Epidemica (mild HFRS) · CFR less than 1 percent
Puumala virus is the most common cause of hantavirus disease in Europe. It produces a milder renal-syndrome variant called nephropathia epidemica and is associated with cyclical ba…
Read more on PUUV →Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) · CFR 5 to 15 percent
Hantaan virus is the prototype hantavirus and the most severe cause of HFRS in east Asia. South Korea licences a vaccine (Hantavax) targeting this serotype; no antiviral or vaccine…
Read more on HTNV →Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS, mild) · CFR 1 to 2 percent
Seoul virus circulates wherever its rat reservoirs do — effectively global. Outbreaks have been reported in pet-rat fanciers in the US and UK and in urban populations near port inf…
Read more on SEOV →Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS, severe) · CFR 10 to 12 percent
Dobrava-Belgrade virus causes the most severe form of HFRS in Europe, with case fatality rates approaching Hantaan virus levels. It is endemic across the Balkans, Slovenia, and par…
Read more on DOBV →HPS is the more lethal presentation, with overall case-fatality between 30 and 50 percent for Andes virus and around 38 percent for Sin Nombre virus per CDC surveillance. After a 1–8 week incubation, patients develop a brief flu-like prodrome (fever, myalgia, headache) followed by rapid cardiopulmonary collapse with non-cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and shock. The defining lab finding is thrombocytopenia plus left-shifted white-cell count with circulating immunoblasts.
HFRS is associated with Old World serotypes — Hantaan virus and Dobrava-Belgrade virus cause severe disease (CFR 5 to 15 percent); Puumala virus and Seoul virus cause milder presentations (CFR less than 2 percent). The classical five-stage clinical course (febrile, hypotensive, oliguric, diuretic, convalescent) is most recognisable in Hantaan-virus disease. Acute kidney injury is the defining renal feature.
A detailed breakdown is available on the hantavirus symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment pages.
HORIZON maintains per-country pages with case chronology and authoritative-source linkage. Recognised endemic regions include:
Every record on HORIZON carries an audit-grade citation including:
Browse the live source registry for the current status of every WHO, CDC, ECDC, PAHO, ProMED, national-authority, peer-reviewed-journal, and aggregator feed in the pipeline.
All HORIZON data is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Mirror it, scrape it, index it, train on it — attribution to 79th Unit Limited is the only requirement. JSON endpoints are documented in our OpenAPI schema:
GET /api/v1/cases — ingested case reports with qualification scoresGET /api/v1/incidents — authoritative outbreak counts and ontologyGET /api/v1/sources — source registry with quality telemetryGET /api/v1/meta/stats — global countersGET /api/v1/meta/events — chronological event feed