Characterization of a natural focus of Puumala hantavirus infection in the Czech Republic.

Hantaviruses are RNA viruses of the Bunyaviridae family, represented in the Czech Republic by three genospecies: Dobrava-Belgrade, Puumala and Tula. They persist in natural foci of infection. In 2004 to 2009, a local outbreak with 18 reported cases of nephropathia epidemica caused by Puumala hantavirus occurred in the Sumava mountains and foothills and was spacially associated with another outbreak in Lower Bavaria, Germany.