Western Balkans — Belgrade anchor
Dobrava hantavirus HFRS · Western Balkans · preliminary historical
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Summary
Increased HFRS activity reported across Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina during 2005–2008 attributable to a mix of Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV, reservoir Apodemus flavicollis) and Puumala virus (PUUV, reservoir Myodes glareolus). Regional retrospective work (Avšič-Županc et al.) characterized the period as one of elevated activity in the western Balkans, although Balkan HFRS incidence is described as 'modest, with approximately one hundred cases reported in most years' across the region. Country-by-country and outbreak-specific case counts for 2007 were not extractable from open-access tier-1 sources; this entry is retained for the period of elevated activity but case numbers are intentionally left at zero rather than fabricated.
Why this matters
Representative of the recurring multi-country DOBV/PUUV activity peaks observed in the western Balkans during the mid-2000s. Severe disease form (DOBV-associated HFRS) is comparable to Hantaan virus in Asia, making the region the principal locus of severe European HFRS.
Sources
- T1 Disease information about hantavirus European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control · 2026-05-07
- T2 HFRS and hantaviruses in the Balkans/South-East Europe (Avšič-Županc et al., Virus Research 2014) Virus Research / ScienceDirect · 2026-05-07