Genetic detection of Dobrava/Belgrade virus in a Czech patient with Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome

In the summer of 2008, a 15-year-old boy was hospitalized in a paediatric intensive care unit in the Czech Republic. Laboratory diagnosis of hantavirus infection was established by serological and molecular methods. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses showed that the causative strain was Dobrava/Belgrade virus, which is genetically closer to strains associated with Apodemus flavicollis rodents.