International News: Argentine Scientists trap rodents as Hantavirus investigation expands
By Zoila Palma: Argentine scientists have begun trapping rodents in forests surrounding Ushuaia as part of an investigation into a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius. The outbreak killed three people and sickened several others, prompting health authorities to search for the source of the virus in an area previously believed […] The post International News: Argentine Scientists trap rodents as Hantavirus investigation expands appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
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By Zoila Palma: Argentine scientists have begun trapping rodents in forests surrounding Ushuaia as part of an investigation into a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius.
The outbreak killed three people and sickened several others, prompting health authorities to search for the source of the virus in an area previously believed to be free of hantavirus transmission, AP reports.
Investigators from Argentina’s state-backed Malbrán Institute set out around 150 box traps in wooded areas near Ushuaia and collected rodents for testing.
Wearing protective gloves and masks, the scientists transported the captured rats to a temporary laboratory where blood samples will be analyzed.
Officials said the fieldwork will continue for several days before samples are sent to the institute’s main laboratory in Buenos Aires, with testing expected to take up to a month.
The investigation comes after questions emerged about where the first known victims, a Dutch couple traveling through Chile and Argentina, may have contracted the virus before boarding the cruise ship on April 1.
Health officials in Tierra del Fuego have rejected suggestions that the outbreak began at an Ushuaia landfill, arguing that hantavirus has never previously been recorded in the province or the wider archipelago.
Experts say hantavirus in southern Argentina and Chile is commonly linked to exposure to the feces and urine of the long-tailed pygmy rice rat, known locally as the “colilargo.” While the specific species is not believed to exist in Tierra del Fuego, a related subspecies is found in forests around Ushuaia.
Scientists are now attempting to determine whether that subspecies could also carry and spread the virus.
The post International News: Argentine Scientists trap rodents as Hantavirus investigation expands appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
