Disseminated Bocavirus Infection after Stem Cell Transplant

Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 13, No. 9, September 2007 1425 the patient 3 days before she died, a friend and a healthcare worker had contact with her on the day before her death, and the rest of the healthcare workers had contact with the patient on the day she died. To our knowledge, this is the fi rst imported case and the tenth case of HPS reported in British Columbia, Canada, since 1994 (2006 BC Annual Summary of Reportable Diseases, available from www.bccdc.org/content.php?item=33) (4). Six of these 10 cases were fatal. All cases except the 1 described here have been locally acquired Sin Nombre infections. Sin Nombre virus is endemic in the Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mice) population in most of British Columbia (5). Worldwide, imported cases of HPS are unusual, although HPS has been reported in countries that are in close geographic proximity or in travelers to disease-endemic areas (6–8). Fortunately, none of the persons exposed to the patient reported symptoms consistent with HPS during the incubation period, and none who were tested seroconverted. Seroprevalence surveys in Chile among healthcare worker contacts of patients with HPS caused by the Andes virus showed a prevalence of 0% (9). A report from Argentina showed that cases due to secondary transmission occurred mostly in nonhealthcare workers after prolonged close contact in the prodromal period (10). In conclusion, we describe an imported case of fatal HPS due to an Andes-like hantavirus with no evidence of secondary transmission.