Prevalence of antibodies against hantaviruses among the adult population of the Czech Republic.

At least three hantavirus genospecies are circulating among wild rodents in Europe: Puumala, Dobrava and Tula, the two first being of clinical significance for humans as possible causative agents of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. As many as 710 adult individuals randomly selected from 12 regions of the Czech Republic were screened for the presence of antibodies against hantaviruses. Commercial sets with Hantaan and Puumala antigens were used for this purpose. Five subjects showed IgG reactivity to Hantaan-like virus (Dobrava) and one subject tested positive for both IgG and IgM antibodies. Two other subjects showed IgM reactivity alone. This means that as many as seven (1.0%) subjects showed reactivity to Hantaan antigen. Eight subjects showed IgG reactivity to Puumala antigen, none of them being IgM positive. Two other subjects were IgM positive only. Altogether ten (1.4%) subjects were reactive to Puumala antigen. Three subjects showed reactivity to both of the antigens tested.