Current Situation and Perspectives on Hantaviruses in Mexico

Hantaviruses are transmitted by rodents producing the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in the Americas. Today, no human cases of HPS have been reported in Mexico in spite of similar environmental conditions with Central America and the USA where several cases have occurred. To understand the current situation of hantaviruses in Mexico and the public health risk, a systematic review of studies was conducted reporting hantaviruses in rodents to known state seroprevalence and hantavirus genotypes. Simultaneously, this study identified the potential hantaviruses based on the phylogenetic diversity (PD) of hantaviruses reported in the Americas in hosts with the distribution in Mexico. A total 3862 rodents belonging to 82 species have been tested since 1999 to 2017. Overall, 392 individuals representing 43 rodent species were seropositive, and the seroprevalence ranged from 0 to 69.22%. Seven hantaviruses genotypes have been described in Mexico and three are zoonotic. Four host species of rodents are widely distributed in Mexico harboring the highest PD of viruses. According to the hosts distribution, 16 genotypes could be circulating in Mexico and some of these represent a potential risk for public health. This study proposed multidisciplinary and interinstitutional collaborations to implement systematic surveillance in rodents.