ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the molecular epidemiological characteristics of hantavirus seen during 2000-2003 in Qingdao region of Shandong province.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sera were collected from 64 patients with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and viral RNA was extracted from the sera. HTN and SEO universal primers were designed as outer primers and HTN and SEO specific primers as inner primers. G1 gene region of M segment from hantavirus was amplified by using RT-nest-PCR for sequencing. The data of nucleotide sequences were analyzed by DNA star software.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Six cases were positive by HTN specific primer of total cases (9%); 25 of 64 cases by SEO specific primer (39%); total positive rate was 48%. In general, SEO type was a prevalent type of hantavirus in Qingdao region. The variation of the nucleotide sequences among SEO viruses (nucleotide sequence divergence ranged from 0.3% approximately 8.9%) was lower than that among HTN type (nucleotide sequence divergence ranged from 2.6% approximately 11.2% ).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Majority of hantavirus found in Qingdao region belonged to SEO type and still a few strains belonged to HTN type. Most of the HTN viruses were detected in Jiaonan county.</p>