DIEGO ARAOZ / AFP
The entrance to Luz Medica Hospital, where 9 people have been infected with a mysterious virus.
ARGENTINA – Three people have died since Monday in Tucuman, in northwesternArgentineas a result of severe pneumonia, “of unknown origin”. These cases are extremely localized around the same clinic, and for which Covid et influenza in particular have been discarded.
A total of nine cases, including eight members of the medical staff at the same private clinic in San Miguel de Tucuman, known as Tucuman (1,300 km from Buenos Aires), have been identified, with symptoms appearing between August 18 and 23, a indicated at a press conference Thursday, September 1, the provincial Minister of Health Luis Medina Ruiz.
Two members of the nursing staff died on Monday and then Wednesday, and the minister announced on Thursday the death of a third person, a 70-year-old woman who was a patient in the same private clinic, where she had undergone surgery.
Symptoms similar to those of Covid
This patient “had been operated on for a gallbladder problem and then re-operated twice. From then on, there was a picture of lung infection that coincided with the appearance (of symptoms) in others”, he specified. This patient could “in principle to be ”patient zero”, but it’s on the exam”.
In-depth examinations are underway at the Argentine reference laboratory, the Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires, and results were expected by the end of the week. But already, Covid, flu, type A and B influenza, and hantavirus (transmitted by rodents) in particular have been ruled out, Luis Ruiz Medina said on Wednesday.
Common symptoms are “a severe respiratory condition with bilateral pneumonia, and imaging very similar to Covid, but this has been ruled out”he also reported. “Most started with vomiting, high fever, diarrhea and body aches, with a more complex course in some”he said Thursday.
Of the six patients affected, four are hospitalized with more or less serious symptoms, two others are monitored in isolation at home. The three new cases revealed on Thursday are those of a 40-year-old nurse and a nurse, and a 30-year-old nurse with comorbidities.
A very localized epidemic
Following the outbreak of the outbreak, a “intense search of all health personnel” of the clinic was launched for follow-up purposes, said Ruiz Medina. The clinic, requested by AFP, declined to comment. No more than relatives of patients, including the deceased patient, outside the establishment.
Infectiologist Mario Raya, deputy director of the Zenon Santillan Health Center, the main public hospital in Tucuman, also assured Thursday that “at the moment, we have no cases outside of this establishment”.
“It’s an epidemic, in a certain place, with a specific cause and a certain number of people. For now, everything related to this pathology is under investigation.he told the local daily The Gazette of Tucuman.
Obviously “aggressive” pathology
Regarding the origin of the pathology, the provincial Minister of Health had speculated on Wednesday that it could come from an infectious agent, but that were not excluded “toxic or environmental causes”. Analyzes are therefore also in progress on the water and the systems of air conditioner of the clinic.
“So far, we have not found anything that allows us to know the cause of the epidemic. Since we don’t know what it consists of, we don’t know evolution well.”, did he declare. However, he pointed out that no cases had been identified in close contacts of the patients to date, a “positive news” according to him.
“It would not be a disease that results in person-to-person transmission, since close contacts of these patients do not show any symptoms”, explained Wednesday, in the same direction, the president of the Medical College of the province of Tucuman, Hector Sale. While expressing his ” worry “ for an obvious pathology « agressive ».
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