Health authorities in Argentina are working to determine whether the South American nation is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has claimed several lives aboard an Atlantic cruise ship.
The Argentine Ministry of Health said Wednesday it would send experts to the southern area of Ushuaia to capture and test rodents, which typically transmit the disease, “in areas linked to the route” taken by a Dutch couple who died from the virus.
A total of three people—the Dutch couple and a German national—have died from the outbreak. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that eight people are suspected of having contracted the virus.
“As of 6 May, there are 8 cases, 3 of whom are confirmed as hantavirus by laboratory testing,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post. “WHO will continue to work with countries to ensure that the patients, contacts, passengers and crew have the information and support they need to stay safe and prevent spread.”
The cruise ship, stuck off the coast of Cape Verde since Sunday, departed for Spain on Wednesday after three people had been evacuated, two of them seriously ill. Ghebreyesus said they would be taken to the Netherlands.
Health authorities have said the wider public risk remains low and that the virus spreads much more slowly than previous diseases such as COVID-19. “When we say close contact [for human-to-human transmission], we mean very close physical contact,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management.
A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a serious and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Argentine authorities said they will send Andes virus RNA and guidelines for diagnosis and treatment to laboratories in Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Warming conditions have been linked to the uptick in virus cases, possibly as climate change expands the territory of rodents. The Argentine Health Ministry reported Tuesday it has recorded 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, about twice the caseload recorded over the same period last year.
Source: www.aljazeera.com