A hantavirus probe in western Mendoza Province did not find any virus-carrying rodents, Argentina's Health Ministry said Friday, as scientists investigate the origin of a deadly outbreak in April.
The MV Hondius cruise ship was sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina 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.
The investigation in Mendoza follows a similar probe in the Tierra del Fuego province, from where the ship set sail on April 1.
Scientists did not capture the rodent known to carry hantavirus in the second province.
"No specimens of Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, the main known reservoir of the Andes virus in much of the Patagonian region, were detected," the health ministry stated in a report.
Scientists from the ANLIS-Malbrán Institute, Argentina's leading center for infectious diseases, worked alongside experts from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the week-long mission.
The team set over 250 traps in different areas on the outskirts of Malargue, a city visited by a Dutch cruise ship passenger who died of the disease.
Scientists believe they have caught another rodent species which has shown evidence of virus antibodies in the past, but is not considered an important transmitter in endemic regions.
They have not yet confirmed the species type but are running tests.
The World Health Organization has to date recorded 13 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak, including the three people who died.
According to the University of Mendoza, the province "currently has no confirmed local circulation of the Andes virus."
Tierra del Fuego Province has meanwhile not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago.
– TIMES/AFP
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