hantavirus
When a new virus appeared in the Four Corners region, American scientists were stumped. What was causing such a quick death to such healthy people? Was there a potential epidemic on their hands? No one knew, and when they finally determined that a strain hantavirus was involved, many were shocked. This had to be something completely new to the hantavirus family and that was somewhat overwhelming. Normally, the hantavirus only affects the kidneys, but this new virus dealt with the upper respiratory area. This paper takes an in depth look at the history of the hantavirus as well as its infectious nature and replication process. Hantaviruses first came into existence through human eyes during the Korean War. Over 2000 U.S. soldiers were affected with this unknown virus that was quickly found to be carried through field mice. The natural territory of this virus included parts of Japan, Korea, northeastern China, and southeastern and central Russia. Between 1955 and 1977, this virus caused many more infections along with fatalities. Throughout the 1970s, eleven other strains of hantaviruses were found in Korea and Eurasia. In 1976, Hantaan virus was isolated from the Apodemus agreavius
Hantaviruses belong to the Bunyavirus family. In this family there are five genera: Bunyavirus, Phlebovirus, Nairovirus, Tospovirus, and Hantavirus. Unlike other members of Bunyavirus, which are arthropod-borne, the hantavirus is rodent-borne. Hantaviruses are negative-stranded RNA viruses with a tripartite genome that consists of a large (L), medium (M), and small (S) segment (Rodriguez 99). They are spherical and enveloped. The L protein acts as a replicase, transcriptase, and endonuclease. The M and S code for two surface glycoproteins G1 and G2 and a nucleocapsid protein (N) respectively. The envelope glycoproteins are thought to be the major elements involved in induction of immunity to hantaviruses. Genomic RNA of hantavirus shows relatively few differences in length between the L and M segments. However, the S segment varies in length mainly in its 3' noncoding region. The noncoding region specific to the S segment is made up of numerous imprecise repeats. http://www.uct.ac.za/microbiology/hanta html. Hantavirus genome Journal of General Virology 79:2615-2622. Cases of hantavirus continued to pop up throughout the United States. A Mexican immigrant died of internal hemorrhaging and kidney failure, and the disease was tied to a new strain of hanta: the Leaky virus. Not only was the disease infecting southwestern U.S., but also deep in America's inner cities. With the increase of rats in the cities, that increased the likelihood of the hantavirus infecting people.
Some common words found in the essay are:
G1 G2, Genomic RNA, Finally June, Indians Corners, China Death, World War, Korea Eurasia, Infection HPS, HFRS Unfortunately, Corners Study, sin nombre, 3' ncr, hantavirus found, strain hantavirus, pulmonary edema, prairie dogs, caused hantavirus, g1 g2, corners strain, chemical cause symptoms, genomic rna, pulmonary syndrome hps, sin nombre virus, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, match corners strain,
Approximate Word count = 3218
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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