Volume 15, Number 6—June 2009 Hantaviruses in Rodents and
Humans, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China Surveys were
carried out in 2003–2006 to better understand the epidemiology
of hantaviruses in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China
(Inner Mongolia). Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS)
was first reported in this region in 1955 and has been an
important public health problem here since then. During
1955–2006, 8,309 persons with HFRS were reported in Inner
Mongolia (average incidence rate 0.89/100,000), and 261 (3.14%)
died. Before the 1990s, all HFRS cases occurred in northeastern
Inner Mongolia. Subsequently, HFRS cases were registered in
central (1995) and western (1999) Inner Mongolia. In this study,
hantaviral antigens were identified in striped field mice
(Apodemus agrarius) from northeastern Inner Mongolia and in
Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) from middle and western Inner
Mongolia. Phylogenetic analysis of hantaviral genome sequences
suggests that HFRS has been caused mainly by H