Argentina’s Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that specialists would be sent to the southern city of Ushuaia to capture and test rodents, which are known carriers of the virus.
Health authorities in Argentina are investigating whether the country could be the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to an Atlantic cruise ship that has already claimed several lives.
Argentina’s Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that specialists would be sent to the southern city of Ushuaia to capture and test rodents, which are known carriers of the virus.
Officials said the investigation would focus on areas connected to the travel route of a Dutch couple who died after contracting the disease.
So far, three people the Dutch couple and a German citizen have died in the outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said eight people are suspected to have been infected.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post that three of the eight suspected cases had been confirmed through laboratory testing.
He added that the WHO would continue working with affected countries to ensure that patients, passengers, crew members, and close contacts receive the information and support needed to stay safe and help prevent further spread of the virus.
The cruise ship, which had been stranded off the coast of Cape Verde since Sunday, departed for Spain on Wednesday after three passengers were evacuated, including two who were seriously ill.
Tedros said the patients would be transported to the Netherlands for treatment.
Health experts have stressed that the overall risk to the public remains low, noting that hantavirus spreads far less easily than diseases such as COVID-19.
Maria Van Kerkhove explained that human-to-human transmission generally requires very close physical contact, such as sharing a cabin or caring for an infected person, making it very different from the rapid spread seen with COVID-19 or influenza.
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