Argentina, the country from which the cruise ship where a hantavirus outbreak was detected set sail, confirmed 41 cases of the disease so far in 2026 and reported that the current epidemiological season shows a higher circulation of the pathology than in previous years and “above the outbreak threshold,” according to the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
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“At the national level, the 2025-2026 season shows a number of cases that is, for almost the entire analyzed period, above the outbreak threshold, with a sustained increase in the accumulated cases throughout the season,” it indicated.
The fatality rate, at 31.7%, is also higher than in other periods
According to the latest National Epidemiological Bulletin, Argentina recorded 101 cases so far this season – between last July and June of this year – of which 32 died, marking a fatality rate of 31.7%, higher than in previous years.
With two months remaining until the end of the current season, the recorded figures represent a significant increase compared to previous ones: there were 57 in 2024-2025, 75 in 2023-2024, 63 in 2022-2023, 43 in 2021-2022, 54 in 2020-2021, and 83 in 2019-2020.
The numbers recorded in Argentina during the last year also place it as the country in the region with the highest number of cases, according to a report from the Pan American Health Organization published last December.
In 2026, most of the confirmed cases in the South American country were concentrated in the central area, although significant outbreaks were also identified in the northwest, northeast, and south.
In the southern region, cases were detected in the provinces of Chubut, Neuquén, and Río Negro, while in Tierra del Fuego, from where the cruise set sail on April 1, there are no records of infected individuals so far.
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This Tuesday, following the publication of the Epidemiological Bulletin, the Government of Río Negro announced the detection of a new case in the city of Bariloche.
The disease is mainly transmitted by inhalation of viral particles present in the feces, urine, or saliva of infected wild rodents.
WHO experts point out that the initial point of contamination was in Argentina
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), the body Argentina left last March, indicated in recent hours that the information gathered about the outbreak on the cruise suggests that the initial contagion occurred before the infected person or persons boarded the ship.
A first hypothesis points to Argentina as the initial point of contamination, where people who later became ill boarded, while a second suggests they could have contracted the virus on some of the remote islands visited during the first weeks of the trip, including South Georgia, Nightingale, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena, and Ascension, which have significant rodent populations.
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On Tuesday, the WHO raised to seven the number of people affected by the outbreak on the cruise, which has been anchored for days off the coast of Cape Verde. Among the seven cases, two already confirmed in the laboratory, there are three deceased individuals.
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