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Hantavirus: How Argentina contained the 2019 outbreak in Patagonia
From late 2018 to early 2019, the Patagonian village of Epuyén experienced an outbreak resulting in 34 confirmed infections and 11 deaths, all linked to the Andes hantavirus, the same strain that affected patients on the MV Hondius cruise ship. Argentina's handling of the crisis has since been considered a textbook case.
Published on:11/05/2026 - 17:58
Modified on:12/05/2026 - 09:04
By : Web Content Writing
On November 3, 2018, more than a hundred people gathered for a birthday celebration in Epuyén, a small village in Patagonia with a few thousand inhabitants. Among them was a 68-year-old farm worker who had recently been picking mushrooms in a rural area and developed flu-like symptoms. A few days later, he received a diagnosis. This would become the index case of a hantavirus epidemic that would sicken 34 people and kill 11 between November 2018 and March 2019.
“ At the time, very little was known about the disease. Human-to-human transmission was first discovered in 1996 ” in El Bolsón, 40 km from Epuyén, Jorge Díaz, an epidemiologist at the Chubut Health Ministry, told AFP. Hantavirus is endemic in Argentina – with around 100 cases per year – but the Andes strain, the only one to have shown human-to-human transmission, is concentrated in the Patagonian provinces of Chubut, Neuquén, and Río Negro.
“ Our experience with this virus is very limited ,” confirmed microbiologist Gustavo Palacios, now at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, in an interview with CNN . “ There are probably fewer than 300 cases of human-to-human transmission of the Andes virus since its emergence [...] and about 3,000 confirmed cases in total. ”
Fast transmission
The epidemiological investigation, analyzed in a study published in 2020 in the New England Journal of Medicine , reconstructs a remarkably precise chain of transmission. The first patient, present at the party on November 3rd, infected five people in 90 minutes: two sitting 30 cm away from him, two more than a meter away, and a fifth he briefly encountered on the way to the restroom. The study thus reveals that short-term contact was sufficient for transmission, generally through " inhalation of droplets ."
Two other "super-spreaders" fueled the outbreak: a 61-year-old man with an active social life infected six people before dying 16 days after the onset of symptoms; his wife, who had a fever at his funeral wake, infected ten others, who fell ill between 17 and 40 days after the event. The Epuyén epidemic demonstrates that the window of contagiousness is very short, about a day, with a peak on the day the fever develops in the patient. This is facilitated by group events, such as parties, family gatherings, and funerals.
Selective respiratory isolation
Faced with this unusual situation, the authorities in Chubut and the Ministry of Health broke with traditional practices. In late December 2018, they implemented a novel system: "selective respiratory isolation" (SRI). Any asymptomatic person who had lived with a confirmed case or had close contact with one must remain at home, wear a high-efficiency mask, and receive daily clinical monitoring.
“ The quarantine required contacts of a positive case to self-isolate for 45 days ,” Jorge Díaz explained to AFP. The incubation period, initially estimated at 30 days, was extended to 45 after the observation of late-onset cases. In Epuyén, up to 142 people were isolated at various times, in a town of 3,000 to 4,000 inhabitants. A judge even ordered 85 residents to remain confined to their homes for a month, ABC reported . The streets emptied, and “No Pass” signs appeared at the hospital entrances.
This policy, highly intrusive for a small community, was accompanied by daily medical visits including temperature checks, swabs, and psychological support. " Entire families were quarantined, businesses and schools adapted their operations [...] isolated individuals faced fear, uncertainty, and social stigma ," summarizes the Argentinian media outlet Infobae . The event remains a traumatic memory for the community to this day.
The World Health Organization emphasizes that the response relies on multidisciplinary teams, enhanced surveillance, active case finding, environmental control, the implementation of preventive measures, and safe patient care. More than 80 healthcare professionals—doctors, nurses, microbiologists, epidemiologists, and social workers—were mobilized in Epuyén and the surrounding region. And despite close contact with critically ill patients, none of these healthcare workers were infected during the operation.
Two cases were reported in a small rural hospital, likely due to exposure before the strict implementation of protocols. Experts believe this confirms the effectiveness of the measures once in place. A report by the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI) highlighted " the effectiveness of epidemiological measures, the collaborative work of various stakeholders, the responsiveness of healthcare teams, and the development of protocols now considered a model ," notes Infobae.
A model, according to the WHO
The virus is usually transmitted by rodents—specifically the long-tailed rat—but the Andes strain is an exception. In the Andean region—a corridor of villages in an Andean landscape of lakes and forests—residents have learned to " live with hantavirus ": ventilating garages and sheds, bleaching areas likely to harbor rodents, and maintaining heightened vigilance. Now, concludes Jorge Díaz, " whenever a case of hantavirus (Andes) occurs, isolation is prescribed or recommended ."
When the first cases of Andes hantavirus were detected aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, which had departed from Ushuaia, several European countries drew directly on this experience. Authorities in the Netherlands and Spain adopted approaches similar to those implemented in Argentina, as ABC reports: " They isolated patients in secure medical facilities while striving to track their movements ."
“ If we follow public health measures and the lessons learned from the Argentine experience, we can break this chain of transmission ,” said Abdi Rahman Mahamud, WHO’s alert and response officer. There is still no validated vaccine or specific treatment for the Andes hantavirus. But for the UN agency, the Argentine case illustrates that a rapid and coordinated response can stop a local outbreak, even with an emerging pathogen.
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/amériques/202...ine-a-contenu-l-épidémie-de-2019-en-patagonie
See also:
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...na-2018-2019-hantavirus-andes-strain-outbreak
