Argentina on Friday said it was expanding its investigation into the origins of the hantavirus outbreak that struck an Atlantic cruise ship last month, sending scientists to trap and test rats in the western province of Mendoza while lab results are pending from the southernmost city of Ushuaia.
Argentine authorities said biologists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were joining the mission next week in Mendoza.
The rare outbreak on the MV Hondius was caused by the Andes hantavirus, a disease carried by rodents endemic to Argentina and Chile and the only hantavirus thought to be able to spread between people in some cases.
Reconstructing the chain of transmission is difficult work, and Argentine authorities say it may never be possible to pinpoint exactly where the first known victims — a Dutch couple who died in April — contracted the virus before boarding the cruise in Ushuaia. But experts say getting to the bottom of the outbreak will offer valuable information about how the rare virus spread and carry important lessons for management of the disease.
As repatriated cruise passengers from more than 20 countries have disembarked and entered specialized quarantine centers, epidemiologists are examining the 11 confirmed hantavirus cases, including the schedules of the three people killed, to better understand the chain of transmission.
Argentine scientists are working to retrace the path of the Dutch tourists, believing that the original source of the onboard virus to be the man’s exposure to rodent droppings or urine during their monthslong trip across Argentina and Chile before the ship’s departure The typical incubation period before symptoms appear is around three weeks but can extend up to eight.
Shortly after news of the outbreak emerged, Argentina’s Health Ministry identified Ushuaia as a possible source of the contagion and last month sent investigators from the Malbran government research institute to collect rodent samples in various wooded areas around the city.