[Early diagnosis of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome during war]

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) represented a significant military problem in wide-spread epidemics among soldiers in previous wars. ELISA test for detection of the anti-hantaviral IgM antibodies has proved as a method of choice for rapid diagnostics of the HFRS. Since the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the greatest endemices focuses of the HFRS in Europe, the war circumstances in which we live at the present time, could easily bring about, both breaking up of the epidemic, and the sporadic cases of this disease. Therefore we wanted to investigate the diagnostic potentials of this test on the own sera, in the early stage of the disease, through the analysis of the IgM OD (optical density) values, obtained through the ELISA test. The high OD values of the IgM antibodies within the first ten days of the disease, clearly demonstrates the diagnostic potential of the ELISA IgM test. Through this we have reconfirmed the ability and readiness of our laboratory for rapid diagnostics of the HFRS. This is even more significant since the patients diagnosed within the first seven days of the outbreak of disease can be included to the ribavirin therapy which decrease the mortality rate and abbreviates the course of the HFRS.