An infection transmitted from small rodents to humans was diagnosed for the first time in Ireland earlier this year when a German tourist presented to a Limerick hospital with the virus.
The 30 year-old German native presented to the Mid-West Regional Hospital in May with renal failure and respiratory symptoms and was found to have had human hantavirus.
The human hantavirus infection had never been previously diagnosed in Ireland, according to the latest disease surveillance report of the Health Service Executive’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
However, there were an exceptional number of cases reported in Germany and other European countries in late 2011 and early 2012, following a significant rise in the number of cases of the infection recorded in Germany.
Between October 2011 and April 2012, 852 cases were reported in Germany, 68 per cent of which occurred in the region of Baden-Württemberg, the area from which the tourist hailed.