Ruptly
"Health authorities in Ushuaia announced a low local epidemiological risk of hantavirus contagion on a cruise ship that departed from the Argentine port, prompting health concerns and international monitoring. Juan Facundo Petrina, director of Epidemiology and Environmental Health of the Province of Ushuaia, stated that the appearance of the case would not necessarily be linked to the place of embarkation but to the disease's own conditions and its evolution over time during the trip, during an interview on Friday. "Such a situation could have departed from any port in the world, and the same situation would have occurred, as it is a nonspecific disease, with a fairly long incubation period," said the expert. The specialist highlighted the historical absence of recorded hantavirus cases in the province, showing graphs over an extended period of epidemiological analysis. "The graph is not wrong, this is the line, Ushuaia, Rio Grande, Tolhuin, zero are the cases we have of hantavirus until April 1, which was when the ship departed," Petrina emphasised. He detailed the technical aspects of the virus, including its incubation period and transmissibility, noting that the case's evolution does not coincide with the patient's stay in Argentine territory, but rather with later stages of the journey at sea. The director of epidemiology then noted that the cruise passengers may have visited risk areas in southern Chile, where recent hantavirus outbreaks have been recorded, opening new lines of investigation into the origin of the contagion. He also expressed concern about the media coverage of the case, assuring that it generates an unjustified negative perception of the province of Ushuaia, which relies heavily on tourism and port activities. Three people have died in total: a Dutch couple and a German national. The MV Hondius, carrying nearly 150 people, is en route to the Canaries after being denied docking in Cape Verde. On Wednesday, three people were airlifted from the ship to a hospital in the Netherlands. Argentine officials said the working theory was that the Dutch couple caught the virus while birdwatching and had visited a landfill site. Authorities are now racing to trace those many people who reportedly left the ship at earlier stops. The World Health Organisation attempted to calm fear around the planet on Thursday, saying the 'rat virus' first identified aboard a Dutch cruise ship was not the start of a 'new Covid'."
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