[Study of Hantavirus seoul in a human and rodent population from a marginal area in Buenos Aires City].

A sero-epidemiological survey was conducted to detect evidence of the circulation of Hantavirus seoul. This virus of worldwide distribution is associated with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. A total of 106 samples from people who live in a marginal area in Buenos Aires City and 29 Rattus norvegicus captured in the surroundings of their houses were tested for specific antibodies.

[Respiratory distress due to pulmonary hemorrhage in leptospirosis].

Two patients who lived in Buenos Aires suburbs died from leptospirosis in July 2000 and March 2001. They developed a nonspecific febrile illness followed by hemorrhagic pneumonia and respiratory distress in absence of typical manifestations such as jaundice, nephropathy, thrombocitopenia or hemorrhages in other organs. In the house and surroundings of one patient rodents were captured and three strains of leptospira, serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae were isolated.