Hantaan

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A rodent-borne virus that causes severe illness in humans, including bleeding and kidney failure ; a species of the Hantavirus group, named after the Hantan River in Korea
2. An infectious agent carried by rodents that can produce hemorrhagic fever with kidney involvement ; a virus within the genus of hantaviruses first identified near the Hantan River
3. A disease-causing virus transmitted to people through rodent droppings and urine, leading to fever and kidney damage ; a Korean-river-named member of the hantavirus family

Etymology: Hantaan is named for the Hantan River in South Korea, near which the virus was first isolated. The name combines the Korean river name with the Greek-derived suffix "-virus" in the naming scheme used for viruses, so the word is a place-name coinage rather than a classical one. Researchers identified the virus in the 1970s, after an outbreak among United Nations troops in Korea during the Korean War had drawn attention to a severe illness, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, that was carried by field mice and rats. The virus itself belongs to the genus Orthohantavirus, and the word is now used both for the virus and, in the plural sense, for the wider family of related viruses found in rodents worldwide. Its name was settled by scientists rather than inherited from older language, which is why it reads like a map reference.