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.<\/p>\n
The MV Hondius was sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde when its journey was disrupted after three passengers died following a hantavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n
Attention soon focused on the South American nation, where the Andes hantavirus strain is endemic in several regions, as the potential origin of the outbreak.<\/p>\n
In May, scientists from Malbran Institute, Argentina’s leading center for infectious diseases, traveled to Ushuaia to determine whether rodents in the area carried the rare respiratory disease.<\/p>\n
Scientists from the institute will next travel to Mendoza to conduct further investigations with experts from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from June 8 to 12, the health ministry said.<\/p>\n
Results from over 100 rodents captured in Tierra del Fuego in May were still being analyzed, the statement added.<\/p>\n
Hantavirus is endemic in several Argentine provinces, though not in Mendoza.<\/p>\n
The sites for the new study “were selected on the basis of ecological and eco-epidemiological criteria” linked to rodent habits, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
According to the University of Mendoza, the province “currently has no confirmed local circulation of the Andes virus.”<\/p>\n
But there is “a potential presence of the reservoir rodent,” it added.<\/p>\n
Tierra del Fuego has meanwhile not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago.<\/p>\n
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