Argentina to expand hantavirus search to Mendoza Province

Argentina will expand its search for hantavirus-carrying rodents to western Mendoza Province as part of an investigation into a deadly cruise ship outbreak in April, the Health Ministry said Friday.

The MV Hondius was sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina’s south to Cape Verde when its journey was disrupted after three passengers died following a hantavirus outbreak.

Attention soon focused on Argentina, where the Andes hantavirus strain is endemic in several regions, as the potential origin of the outbreak.

To date, the World Health Organization has recorded 13 confirmed or probable cases linked to the cruise ship incident, including the three deaths.

In May, scientists from the ANLIS-Malbrán Institute, Argentina's leading centre for infectious diseases, travelled to Ushuaia to determine whether rodents in the area carried the rare respiratory disease.

Scientists from the institute will next travel to Mendoza Province to conduct further investigations with experts from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from June 8 to 12, Argentina's Health Ministry announced Friday.

Results from over 100 rodents captured in Tierra del Fuego Province in May were still being analysed, the statement added.

Hantavirus typically spreads from the urine, faeces and saliva of infected rodents. There are no vaccines or specific treatments for the rare disease.

The virus is endemic in several provinces in Argentina, though not in Mendoza.

The sites for the new study "were selected on the basis of ecological and eco-epidemiological criteria" linked to rodent habits, the ministry said.

According to the University of Mendoza, the province "currently has no confirmed local circulation of the Andes virus." But there is "a potential presence of the reservoir rodent," it added.

Tierra del Fuego has meanwhile not had a case of hantavirus since reporting became mandatory 30 years ago.

– TIMES/AFP