The Ramón Carrillo Zonal Hospital in the Argentine city of Bariloche reported this Tuesday that the 45-year-old patient who had contracted hantavirus left the intensive care unit and has a favorable evolution in the state of health. The case had caused unusual concern in that tourist city in Patagonia, located 1,578 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. The family was isolated and the authorities had to call for calm due to rumors of a greater spread. At the end of February, a 39-year-old man had died from this disease. Something they considered exceptional. But this anomaly takes on another relevance these days.
Although Bariloche has not been officially confirmed as the zero point of infections, the town that in a few months hopes to become, like every year, one of the epicenters of winter tourism, is no stranger to speculation. With this background, the denial of the hypothesis of this paradisiacal environment as the place where Dutch tourists and at the same time ornithologists contracted the Andes strain before boarding the MV Hondius cruise ship is expected. Both had traveled through southern Argentina, Chile and Uruguay for five months. The time of incubation hantavirus, which can spread up to six weeksseems to coincide with the previous itinerary they took before embarking in Ushuaia, in the southernmost part of this country. At the moment no progress has been made beyond conjecture.
The viral disease has a fatality rate of 40%. It is transmitted through contact with secretions or excrements of a long-tailed mouse, whose scientific name is Oligoryzomys longicaudatus. Those responsible for health policy in the province of Río Negro, to which Bariloche belongs, have recalled the importance of adopting preventive measures in rural areas or areas where there may be circulation of the virus. Calls have been redoubled to ventilate closed environments for at least 30 minutes before entering, clean spaces with water and bleach, seal possible entry of rodents into homes and sheds, and Do not accumulate firewood, garbage or materials that provide shelter for rodents.. Tourists have been asked to take extreme care when camping or carrying out activities in natural areas, especially in forested areas.
The same concern has spread to Neuquén, the neighboring province. The specialists nevertheless insisted on clinging to the conclusions of the Center for Applied Ecology (CEAN) and the Biodiversity and Environment Research Institute (Inibioma-Conicet/UNCo): only about 5% of rodents carry the dreaded virus. However, it was stressed that the risk increases when the mouse population grows, something that happens due to climatic factors and the massive flowering of the so-called colihue cane.
Back to Ushuaia
In this context, in a team from the Malbrán Institute, the main reference in science, research and diagnosis of diseases in Argentinais preparing to travel in the next few hours to the city of Ushuaia to gather more information to determine if the origin of the outbreak that broke out aboard the MV Hondius is there. They travel with a certainty also known by the WHO: both Chile and Argentina share the presence of the Southern Andes virus, the only one that has the potential for interpersonal transmission. “This variant was also the one that was mentioned during the meeting of authorities from the National Ministry of Health and members of the National Administration of Laboratories and Health Institutes (Anlis-Malbrán) with the directors of Epidemiology of the provincial ministries,” the newspaper reported. The Nation.
“Tierra del Fuego does not have the presence of hantavirus and has not registered cases since this disease was incorporated into the mandatory notification events in our country, in 1996. Its neighboring province, Santa Cruz, has not recorded cases for seven years,” insisted the Fuegian Ministry of Health. Raúl González Ittig, independent researcher at the Institute of Animal Diversity and Ecology (IDEA) of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet), pointed out in turn that the presence of the Andes virus in rodents has been proven in Río Negro, Neuquén and Chubut. Without However, “in Tierra del Fuego there would be no infected rodents or human cases so far.” The mere presence of the long-tailed mouse “does not mean that it has contracted the virus.” Oligoryzomys longicaudatus It would have been near a landfill. “It goes against their biology.”
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