Doctors treating hantavirus have long focused on the lungs. A review published last week argues that the nervous system deserves attention too, and that some of the damage may not become apparent for weeks or months after a patient appears to recover.
The review in JAMA Neurology, written by Avindra Nath, MD, of the National Institutes of Health, synthesizes existing case reports and small studies on brain and nerve involvement in hantavirus infection. It was published after the Andes hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius, which infected 11 people and killed three earlier this year, as CIDRAP reported.
