Hantaan virus (HTNV) is the main cause of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in East Asia.

Hantaan virus is transmitted by the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius) In its natural reservoir, HTNV causes a persistent, asymptomatic infection and is spread through excretions, fighting, and grooming.

Humans can become infected by inhaling aerosols that contain rodent saliva, urine, or feces, as well as through bites and scratches.

Genome segments are encased in nucleoproteins to form ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes that are surrounded by a viral envelope that contains spikes emanating from its surface.

The genome of Hantaan virus is about 11.8 thousand nucleotides in length and segmented into three negative-sense, single-stranded RNA (-ssRNA) strands.

The medium segment, about 3.62 kb in length, encodes a glycoprotein precursor that is cleaved into the two spike proteins Gn and Gc during virion assembly.

The large segment, about 6.53 kb in length, encodes the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), which is responsible for transcribing and replicating the genome.

[3][10] These mice mainly reside in rural areas, where they frequently use crop fields as a source of food.

[10] Spillover events in which HTNV spreads from striped field mice to brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are common.

[11] Antibodies to Hantaan virus have been detected in cattle, deer, and rabbits, but the role of these animals as hosts is unknown.

[5][12] Transmission to humans occurs mainly through the inhalation of aerosols that contain rat saliva, urine, or feces.

In China, cases most commonly occur during the autumn harvest season when farmers work on and sometimes sleep in crop fields.

Early symptoms include fever, headache, lower back pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody stool, and the appearance of spots on the skin.

During the hypotensive phase, there is a sudden lowering of blood pressure and shock due to microvascular leakage.

[4] Infection with Hantaan virus mainly occurs in China and South Korea,[16] but also in Russia and Vietnam.

[3] HTNV infection is diagnosed based on observation of symptoms and testing for hantavirus nucleic acid, proteins, or hantavirus-specific antibodies.

This taxonomy is shown hereafter:[1][2][21] During the Korean War, around 3,200 cases of epidemic disease occurred from 1951 to 1954 among United Nations soldiers[22] stationed near the Hantan river in northern South Korea.

Infected people experienced typical symptoms of HFRS, including headache, fever, chills, anorexia, vomiting, as well as commonly hypotension and bleeding in the kidneys.

It was propagated in cell cultures for the first time in 1981 and renamed "Hantaan virus, strain 76-118" after the Hantan river.