Argentina reported a third death from bilateral pneumonia of unknown origin in the province of Tucumán (northwest) and it is investigated if it is the patient zero of the outbreak, health authorities reported Thursday.
“This is a 70-year-old patient who was hospitalized in a private sanatorium,” said provincial Health Minister Luis Medina Ruiz, reporting her death at a press conference.
Among those infected, the Ministry of Health ruled out covid, flu and influenza as causes. This Thursday, the minister also ruled out that the origin could be the hantavirus wave legionella.
“We are studying the origin of the focus and the epidemiological link, we are still in the process of investigation,” he said.
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We are studying the origin of the outbreak and the epidemiological link, we are still in the process of investigation
Until Wednesday, the authorities had reported six cases and this Thursday they reported three more infections.
The third deceased was the only one among those infected who did not belong to the health personnel of the private clinic in San Miguel de Tucumán (1,300 km north of Buenos Aries), where the cases were reported and who has been isolated as a precaution.
The new fatal victim “had undergone surgery for a gallbladder problem and reoperated twice. From then on he had a picture of lung infection that coincides with the date of appearance (of symptoms) of the other patients,” said the minister.
“It is not very clear what the start was because everything is around August 20. We understand that it is patient zero at first, but that is under study,” added Medina Ruiz.
The samples of the first six cases are being investigated by the laboratory of the Malbrán Institute, the main benchmark in the country.
New cases of unknown pneumonia
The three new cases reported “are health personnel from the sanatorium who began with symptoms around August 20 and 23, so in principle they correspond to the same outbreak and the same place of infection,” Medina Ruiz said.
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The three new reported cases are health personnel from the sanatorium who began with symptoms around August 20 and 23.
This is a pharmacy assistant who remains hospitalized with respiratory assistance, a nurse also hospitalized and another who remains without serious symptoms and is isolated at home.
“Until now we have not found anything that allows us to know what was the cause of the outbreak and therefore, since it is a disease that we do not know what it consists of, we do not know the evolution well,” he said.
As reported, “most patients began with vomiting, high fever, diarrhea and body aches, with a more complex evolution in some.”
The first six infected had started with symptoms between August 18 and 22.
Of this first group of infected, two remain hospitalized and one under home isolation, authorities indicated.
“What these patients have in common is the severe respiratory condition with bilateral pneumonia and compromise in images very similar to covid, but that is ruled out,” Minister Medina Ruiz had expressed on Wednesday.
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It is being investigated whether the infections could have occurred through the water pipes or in the air conditioning ducts of the sanatorium.
AFP
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