Hantaan virus, named after Hantaan river (漢灘江), the etiologic agent of clinically severe hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, was first isolated in 1976 from lung tissues of striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius) captured in Songnae?ri, Gyeonggi?do, Korea. Thottapalayam virus (TPMV), isolated from the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) captured in 1964 during a Japanese encephalitis virus survey in southern India, has been placed in the Hantavirus genus of the Bunyaviridae family, by virtue of its morphological features and overall genetic similarities to wellcharacterized rodent-borne hantaviruses. Rodents are considered the principal reservoir hosts of hantaviruses with the single exception of the TPMV, a long?unclassified virus isolated from the Asian house shrew. However, whether or not TPMV is naturally harbored by an insectivore host or represents “spillover” from a rodent reservoir host is unknown. Imjin virus, named after Imjin river (臨津江), was isolated from the lung tissues of the Ussuri white-toothed shrew (Crocidura lasiura) found near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the Republic of Korea, 2006. The recent discovery of genetically divergent hantaviruses from shrews and moles from widely separated geographic regions provides a conceptual framework that challenges the long?accepted dogma that rodents are the sole reservoir hosts of hantaviruses.