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1993.11.20 :  Isolation of Hantavirus

Albuquerque, NM: Bob Howard (505) 768-4596 
CDC-Atlanta: Kent Taylor (404) 639-3286

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
announced here today that a team of biomedical researchers has
isolated and grown in the laboratory the virus responsible for the
hantavirus pulmonary syndrome cases that have occurred in 12 states
and killed 27 persons.

While the virus was identified as the cause of the disease in June
1993, this further step should enable scientists to develop simple
diagnostic tests, investigate effective treatments in the lab and
potentially produce a vaccine against this emerging health threat.

Clarence J. Peters, M.D., chief of the special pathogens branch at
the CDC National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta,
announced the isolation at the Hantaviral Conference at the
Albuquerque Convention Center here.  Dr. Peters said, "The efforts
made by the CDC, the states, the University of New Mexico, the
Indian Health Service, the Navajo Nation and the U.S. Army Medical
Research Institute, were significant in our search for this newly
identified virus.  Our important work in studying this virus will
continue to require that we work together as closely as we have to
date.  We look forward to working with our colleagues and to the
day no one suffers from, or dies of, this disease."

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala, who recently visited the CDC lab in
Atlanta where much of the work was done, said, "I congratulate the
CDC staff and their collaborators.  This is a major step forward in
our efforts to prevent this devastating disease."

Philip R. Lee, M.D., the HHS assistant secretary for health who
directs the U.S. Public Health Service, said, "CDC, the Indian
Health Service, the Navajo Nation and all the other health agencies
involved should be proud that this disease was recognized,
identified and, now, isolated, all within six months."

The CDC first became involved in the hantavirus outbreak
investigation in late May 1993, when a number of cases of Acute
Respiratory Distress Syndrome were reported in the southwest United
States by state and Indian Health Service epidemiologists in the
four corners area of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Within two weeks, the probable cause of the outbreak had been
identified by the CDC as a previously unrecognized hantavirus. 
Other known hantaviruses mainly affect the kidneys of those
infected.  This newly recognized virus often causes fatal lung
disease.  Isolation of the first hantavirus in cell cultures took
over five years.

CDC and the Indian Health Service are both agencies of the
Public Health Services within HHS.