A team of Argentine scientists will travel to the southern port city of Ushuaia next week to determine whether hantavirus is present there, health authorities said Thursday.
The MV Hondius cruise ship, where a rare hantavirus outbreak on board killed three people and triggered an international health scare, set sail from Ushuaia on April 1.
Local health authorities have voiced doubt about the idea that passengers were infected in Ushuaia based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors.
Provincial health official Juan Petrina on Thursday said a team of scientists from Argentina’s leading epidemiological institute would travel to Ushuaia next week to determine whether or not hantavirus is present there.
“The results should be ready within four weeks,” he told reporters.
Scientists from the Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires will work alongside provincial specialists to collect samples, which will then be sent to laboratories for examination.
Hantavirus typically spreads through the urine, faeces and saliva of infected rodents.
There are no vaccines or specific treatments for the rare respiratory disease.
While the Tierra del Fuego province where Ushuaia is located has never recorded a hantavirus case, hantavirus is endemic in other regions of Argentina.
“The epidemiological situation in the area hasn’t changed much. We haven’t had any cases, and it has already been 45 days since the vessel set sail,” said Petrina.
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes the first infection occurred before the start of the cruise ship’s voyage, followed by transmission between humans on board the vessel.
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