Scientists on Tuesday began collecting rodents in the woods around Ushuaia to search for carriers of hantavirus in the area from which the virus-stricken MV Hondius set sail.
The first of three cruise ship passengers to die from the rodent-borne virus, a Dutchman, spent 48 hours in Ushuaia with his wife before embarking on the cruise, raising suspicions they became infected in Ushuaia.
Biologists from the ANLIS-Malbrán Institute, Argentina's leading centre for infectious diseases, collected specimens from more than 100 traps they set a day earlier around the picturesque city at the southern tip of South America, including Tierra del Fuego National Park, a vast mountain reserve.
Scientists are checking local woods and nearby forests, as well as Baliza Escarpados, an area of natural viewpoints crossed by a road from which one can see Ushuaia, its bay and iconic lighthouse at the end of the world.
Wearing gloves and masks they placed the traps in sacks and then took them away to take blood and tissue samples that will be sent to Malbrán's headquarters in Buenos Aires for testing.
Biologists and specialists need to capture a sufficient number of rodents to extract tissue and blood samples. Local health authorities confirmed that at least 70 specimens were captured.
The samples will be tested for the Andes strain of hantavirus detected in several of the Hondius' passengers – the only known strain to spread between people.
The scientists refused to comment on their work but appeared pleased with their yield. "The traps worked very well," a local health source told AFP.
Local scientists are divided on whether the rodent in question is the long-tailed rat (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) or a subspecies, the Magellanic long-tailed rat (Oligoryzomys magellanicus).
The rodent in the area, which resembles a field mouse, measures 6-8 centimetres (2.4-3.1 inches) and has a tail that can reach 15 cm.
It is nocturnal, lives in wooded areas and feeds on fruits and seeds.
The scientists will continue laying up to 150 traps each night throughout the week in order to glean a sufficiently large sample for the results to be representative.
The results are expected in a month.
The hantavirus outbreak aboard the Hondius, which set sail from Ushuaia on April 1, triggered a global health scare.
Three passengers died from the virus, for which no vaccines nor specific treatments exist.
The World Health Organization has sought to reassure the world that the outbreak is not a repeat of the Covid pandemic.
Officials in Tierra del Fuego Province have downplayed the likelihood that the Dutchman became infected in Ushuaia.
The province has not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago.
The Andes strain is however present in provinces over 1,000 kilometres away in the north, such as Rio Negro and Chubut.
Tourists unconcerned
Despite the operation, hantavirus is generally not a concern for the hundreds of tourists enjoying the tranquillity of low season in Ushuaia.
Despite the leaden sky and temperatures of just five degrees Celsius, boat trips along the Beagle Channel were packed with tourists this week.
“We heard about the cruise ship case, but it never occurred to us to cancel our trip,” said María Julia Tadeo, a 43-year-old lawyer.
Together with her two teenage daughters, she was getting ready to set off on a catamaran trip in the hope of spotting sei whales or humpback whales, two species that frequent the town’s bay.
The biting southern cold means many are covering their mouths and noses, although nobody is wearing facemasks.
“There isn’t the same concern as there was during the Covid-19 pandemic; people here know that there is no hantavirus in Ushuaia,” said Alejandra Contreras, a waitress at a restaurant in the city centre.
– TIMES/AFP
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