Hantaviruses in Southeast Europe: Climate change, rodent reservoirs, and One Health challenges
Abstract
Hantaviruses are not emerging pathogens in the strict sense, but their public health relevance is being reshaped by climate change, environmental disruption, land-use change, and increasing human mobility. In Southeast Europe, where Dobrava-Belgrade virus and Puumala virus remain endemic, these infections should no longer be viewed only as sporadic rodent-borne diseases of rural or forested environments. Changing ecological conditions can alter reservoir abundance, virus circulation, and human exposure, while fragmented surveillance and variable diagnostic capacity may obscure the true burden of disease. Although human infection is still driven primarily by environmental exposure to infected rodent excreta, rare person-to-person transmission of Andes virus and recent travel-associated clusters illustrate how traditionally localized zoonoses can acquire wider international relevance. This Opinion argues that hantaviruses should be approached as a climate-sensitive One Health challenge, requiring closer integration of human, veterinary, ecological, and meteorological surveillance. Strengthening regional preparedness is essential before environmental change further expands the conditions for transmission.
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a review, done in animal, not in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Climate Change Impacts on Marine Ecosystems
- Assisted Gene Flow to Facilitate Local Adaptation to Climate Change
- Climate Change Effects on Plant Disease: Genomes to Ecosystems
- Biodiversity and Climate Change: Integrating Evolutionary and Ecological Responses of Species and Communities
- A systematic review of climate change education: giving children and young people a ‘voice’ and a ‘hand’ in redressing climate change
- Global Monsoon Dynamics and Climate Change
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.