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Field mice are considered to be carriers of the tula virus
Photo: H. Pieper / blickwinkel / imago images
For the first time, the tula virus, which occurs mainly in field mice, has been directly proven to be the cause of a disease in a person in Germany.
The molecular biological proof of the pathogen belonging to the hantaviruses was provided jointly by researchers from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) and the Charité in Berlin, the FLI reported on Tuesday.
According to the FLI, a young man in the hospital showed symptoms of acute kidney failure.
Further investigations confirmed the suspicion of a hantavirus disease.
It was not initially possible to determine which virus exactly caused the disease.
Further analyzes then provided the first molecular evidence of a tula virus infection in a patient in Germany.
The work is published in the journal "Emerging Infectious Diseases".
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there were already a few known infections of people with tulaviruses, but in these cases such an infection was only indirectly detected in the serum of those affected.
"This result is now moving the field mouse and the tula virus associated with it more into the focus of hantavirus epidemiology and will require better typing of hantavirus diseases in the future," said Rainer Ulrich, head of the national reference laboratory for hantaviruses in animals at the FLI.
Joint follow-up studies with the Julius Kühn Institute should therefore determine the spread of the tula virus in field mice and other voles more precisely.
"Precisely because of the mass reproductions that occur in the field mouse, the occurrence of human infections with the tula virus should be monitored more closely," said Ulrich.
Flu-like symptoms
Hantaviruses are transmitted to humans via rodents such as rats and mice.
The viruses are usually inhaled, for example through contaminated dust.
The viruses do not spread from person to person in Germany.
According to the RKI, the number of cases fluctuates.
Infections with the hantavirus usually cause illnesses with flu-like symptoms - high fever, headache and body aches, as well as nausea or vomiting.
The kidneys can also be impaired, leading to acute kidney failure.
Only the symptoms can be treated.
There are no specific drugs or vaccinations.
In Germany, hantavirus diseases in humans have so far been attributed primarily to the Puumala virus in bank voles, according to the information.
This virus only occurs in the western, north-western and southern parts of Germany.
The Tulavirus, which is closely related to the Puumala virus, occurs in all parts of Germany.
kry / dpa