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Hantavirus human-to-human transmission highly improbable — Russian sanitary watchdog

According to the regulator, this infection demonstrates periodical surges

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. Human-to-human transmission of hantaviruses causing hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is highly improbable, Russia’s sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

"Rospotrebnadzor’s experts surmise that the probability that HFRS-causing hantaviruses may mutate to be transmitted from human to human is very low," it said.

According to the watchdog, HFRS cases have been registered every year since 1978, with the incidence showing a tendency toward decreasing in the past 25 years. This infection demonstrates periodical surges (every three to five years) depending on the population of red-backed voles, the recognized carriers of hantaviruses in natural focuses of HFRS.

The HFRS situation in Russia is stable and controlled, it added.