As the appearance of a rare strain of hantavirus with the potential for human-to-human transmission raises global health concerns, in Kerala, virologists and clinicians have been contemplating a critical public health question: What proportion of acute febrile illness with renal syndrome and thrombocytopenia (lowered platelet count) reported in the State, currently attributed to suspected leptospirosis, could actually be due to hantavirus?
The Health department is acutely aware of the fact that hantavirus (the scientific name being Orthohantavirus) could be the new emerging pathogen in the State, given the fact that hantavirus seropositivity (presence of antibodies against hantavirus in blood samples, indicative of infection) has already been reported in Kerala in multiple research studies and as early as 2008. The State had also reported one probable case of hantavirus-induced hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) that mimicked leptospirosis in 2014 but there was no confirmatory diagnosis at the time.
