/hahn"teuh vuy'reuhs, han"-/ , n. , pl. hantaviruses .
any of several viruses of the family Bunyaviridae, spread chiefly by wild rodents, that cause acute respiratory illness, kidney failure, and other syndromes.
[ 1975-80; after the Hantaan River in Korea, near which the virus first afflicted Westerners in the 1950s ]