Hantavirus in Italy

Overview

Italy is in the Europe hantavirus context. The country has documented circulation of PUUV, DOBV (Puumala virus, Dobrava-Belgrade virus).

Hantavirus circulation in Italy is concentrated in the Alpine north-east. A 2000–2003 Trentino survey reported low background seroprevalence (~0.4% in Myodes glareolus for PUUV, ~0.2% in Apodemus flavicollis for DOBV), and Dobrava-Belgrade virus was molecularly confirmed in yellow-necked mice in Friuli Venezia Giulia in 2021. National HFRS notification is rare but the region is biologically endemic.

Sources for the above: Kallio-Kokko et al., Epidemiol Infect 2005 (Trentino rodent + human seroprevalence) · IZSVe 2022 (first Dobrava-Belgrade in Italian wild rodents, Friuli Venezia Giulia)

Reservoir species

• Myodes glareolus
• Apodemus flavicollis

Endemic strains

Signal trend (last 30 days)