Infection with a Ratborne Hantavirus in US Residents Is Consistently Associated with Hypertensive Renal Disease

Authors

Gregory E. Glass, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Alan J. Watson, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
James W. LeDuc, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta
Gabor D. Kelen, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Thomas C. Quinn, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
James E. Childs, Centers for Disease Control, AtlantaFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1993

Comments

Published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases 1993;167:614-20.

Abstract

A survey of 8080 subjects was conducted in Baltimore, examining the association between infection with hantaviruses and renal disease. Two groups (N = 6060) with no known risk factors were selected to establish a baseline antibody prevalence. Overall, antibody prevalence was 0.25%. Seroprevalence increased with age, without sex- or race-related differences. Patients with proteinuria showed the same patterns of infection but were more commonly seropositive (1.46%) than the reference group( OR, 3.23; P < .05). Infection among dialysis patients with end-stage renal disease was 2.76%, significantly higher than in the reference group( OR, 5.03; P < .05). In the proteinuria and the dialysis groups, hantavirus infection was consistently associated with a diagnosis of hypertensive renal disease. The association was unrelated to other chronic renal disease diagnoses. Overall, 6.5% of patients with end-stage renal disease due to hypertension were seropositive for a hantavirus. These data suggest that hantavirus infection is associated with hypertensive renal disease.