Paulo city serologically confirmed five cases— three fatal—in the Ribeirão Preto region: two from Guariba, one from Jardinópolis, one from Cajuru, and one from Cassia dos Coqueiros (Luiza Teresinha Madia de Souza, ALI, pers. comm.). Despite these reports and suspicions of additional cases, the prevalence of hantavirus infection and HPS in the region is not known. Laboratory confirmation has not been available locally, and sending serum samples to ALI for laboratory evaluation is not feasible in most cases. Thus, only presumptive diagnoses could be made until the Sin Nombre virus (SNV) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed. To estimate the occurrence and distribution of human hantavirus infection, we used SNV ELISA to conduct a serologic survey of a sample of hospital patients requiring venipuncture for routine procedures. The patients came fro
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