Figure 3.

The map does not aspire to completeness and refers only to data given in the text. The first SEOV isolation from a wharf rat captured in Philadelphia, USA, succeeded in 1984 [9], and was rapidly followed by other isolations from wharf rats in different port cities in North and South America (Belem, Brazil) (see text). The earliest (January 2, 1993) description of eight clinically and serologically documented SEOV-HFRS cases, occurring after local floods in 1990, came from Recife, Brazil [123]. They also constituted the first proof of hantaviral pathogenicity for humans in the New World.