Severe Seoul hantavirus infection in a pregnant woman, France, October 2012

We report the first detection of Seoul virus (SEOV) in humans in Europe, causing severe disease in a pregnant woman in France in October 2012. The patient's laboratory test results mimicked that of pregnancy-induced liver pathologies such as acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) with severe renal failure. This led to an emergency delivery (at 27 weeks' gestation). On the basis of gene S (small) sequence analysis, the Seoul hantavirus strain detected was found to belong to the main SEOV phylogroup. .