ABSTRACT
Western medicine rst recognized hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in humans in the early 1950s during the Korean War when United Nations troops fell ill. During that period, the illness was referred to as Korean hemorrhagic fever [1,2]. In 1978, the etiological agent for this disease, Hantaan virus (HTNV), and its reservoir, the striped eld mouse (Apodemus agrarius), were reported by Drs. Ho Wang Lee, Pyung-Woo Lee, and Karl Johnson [3]. These pioneering studies were followed by the recognition of additional HFRSrelated viruses in the United States and globally [1,4-6].
