United States: In the latest finding, researchers discovered that rodents in Sweden are carrying a pathogen, which can be transmitted to humans, and then can turn itself into haemorrhagic fever.
Recently, scientists have spotted this virus among cases of illnesses reported in areas situated several miles away from where health teams generally observe the pathogen, which has put the officials on alert mode.
More about the detected virus
The virus was first identified in Sweden in the country’s southern region, Scania County, in October 2018 when doctors found a case of nephropathia epidemica believed to be caused by Puumala virus from bank vole, the-sun.com reported.
Nephropathia epidemica, or ‘vole fever’, is another particular type of disease that is known not to be dangerous yet can lead to hemorrhagic fever in humans.
Haemorrhagic fevers are diseases, which are severe and life threatening and are all caused by different viruses and those include the yellow fever, Ebola virus and the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
Physicians were surprised that this disease was present near that area, especially since vole fever had only be observed in the northern region of Great Britain which is more than 500 km south from where the disease was previously spotted.
The second case was reported in 2020. However, it also occurred in Scania County, Sweden, the-sun.com reported.
In both cases, the patients were not travelers and, indeed, got infected in their local region.
What are the symptoms of the disease?
These symptoms and signs were somewhat similar to the disease termed hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome ( HFRS). This comprises fever, general body weakness, haemorrhage signs such as the presence of nose stains, and impaired kidney function.
Ongoing research for vole fever infection
Despite the fact that the two patients eventually got cured of their infections, this led scientists from the Uppsala University to establish the possible reasons as to why vole fever infections were cropping up this far away from where the usual occurrences are observed.
They tested bank voles, collected from Scania county and caught from within proximity of the patient residences and examining if the viscera was positive to hantavirus.
Hantavirus belongs to a group of viruses that targets animals such as mice, rats, and voles.
Certain hantaviruses are able to infect people and cause two kinds of diseases: HFRS is primarily defined by kidney-associated complications, while HPS is related to respiratory involvement.
According to scientists based at the University of Uppsala, both of these types of diseases fall under the notifiable disease category of the Communicable Diseases Act, as they can lead to serious complications and even death.
Evidence of HFRS occurs as a mild illness in Northern and Central Europe through a strain of the hantavirus – Puumala.
However, research that has been conducted indicates that this hantavirus can also lead to clinically severe HRFS, which in some cases may culminate in the death of the affected patient.
Thus, the incidence of vole fever in Sweden is from 100 to 450 patients who require hospitalization annually, and this data only relates to the north of the country.