Argentina Shifts Hantavirus Probe to Mendoza Where Dutch Couple Visited, as Ushuaia Results Remain Pending

Argentina announced on Friday that it is expanding its investigation into the origins of a hantavirus outbreak that struck the MV Hondius cruise ship last month. Scientists will trap and test rodents in the western province of Mendoza, while lab results from samples collected in the southernmost city of Ushuaia remain pending.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will join the mission next week in Mendoza. The outbreak 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. The first known victims were a Dutch couple who died in April after boarding the cruise in Ushuaia.

Argentine scientists are retracing the couple's route, believing the man may have been exposed to rodent droppings or urine during their monthslong trip across Argentina and Chile. The typical incubation period before symptoms appear is around three weeks but can extend up to eight weeks. There are 11 confirmed hantavirus cases linked to the outbreak, and three people have been killed.

Repatriated cruise passengers from more than 20 countries have entered specialized quarantine centers. Epidemiologists are examining the schedules of the confirmed cases and the three fatalities to map the chain of transmission. Argentina's Health Ministry identified Ushuaia as a possible source of the contagion shortly after news of the outbreak emerged.

Last month, investigators from the Malbran government research institute collected rodent samples in wooded areas around the city. Local authorities in Ushuaia have disputed that the virus originated there, noting that the Andes hantavirus has never been detected in Ushuaia or the wider archipelago of Tierra del Fuego.

The Health Ministry said Friday that it is still awaiting lab results from the Ushuaia tests.

The Andes hantavirus infects a few dozen people every year in the Patagonian region of Argentina further north. U.S. counterparts at the CDC, will test rodents for the hantavirus in the city of Malargüe, Mendoza, from June 8-12.

A spokesperson for the Malbran Institute confirmed that the Dutch couple visited Malargüe as they drove through the winemaking region of Mendoza to the northeastern province of Misiones during the last leg of their trip in Argentina. Claudia Perandones, head of Malbran, met with CDC investigators in Argentina on Friday to discuss the operation.

She said the teams, wearing extensive protective equipment, will take blood samples from dead rodents and transfer the material to the main laboratory in Buenos Aires for testing.

Authorities have said test results could take up to a month. The World Health Organization has stated that, given the low risk of transmission, the hantavirus will not become a pandemic threat.