Tourist hotspot at ‘end of the world’ denies causing hantavirus outbreak

Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city, has long enjoyed a reputation as ‘The End of the World’ and as a gateway for both trips to Antarctica and for tourists to explore the impressive, natural beauty of Patagonia.

But in recent days it has been plagued by a different kind of notoriety that has cast a shadow over local businesses and officials: the claim that the Dutch ship MV Hondius may have been ground zero for the hantavirus outbreak.

cruise ship like that now docked in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands Where passengers are evacuated and flown home. He began his journey on April 1, more than 6,000 miles from Ushuaia in the state of Tierra del Fuego.

There were 114 passengers and 61 crew members from 22 countries on board. The virus is believed to have been introduced there, but its exact source and the identity of those carrying it remain unclear. This uncertainty led to intense speculation in some parts of the media.

One theory suggests that a traveler may have been infected at the landfill on the outskirts of Ushuaia, where tourists often visit to watch the birds and where the waste attracts rats and mice. Argentinian officials speaking anonymously to several news outlets said this was their leading hypothesis.

However, this suggestion was not well received locally.

“There are no records of hantavirus cases in Tierra del Fuego in our history,” said Juan Facundo Petrina, the province’s Director General of Epidemiology and Environmental Health.

“And especially since 1996, when the National Surveillance System included it among the mandatory reporting diseases, we have not had a single case in Tierra del Fuego.”

Petrina, who took office in 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic, has reiterated this point in every press conference and interview he has given in recent days.

He emphasized that his state was not a possible source of infection and that the hantavirus endemic area was located more than 1,500 km (930 miles) north.

“First of all, we don’t have the long-tailed mouse subspecies. [which transmits the disease]”In addition, in terms of its development, we do not share the same climatic conditions with Northern Patagonia in terms of humidity and temperature,” he said.

“And if the rodents are going to start moving, it’s important to remember that we’re an island because they don’t respect geographical boundaries.

“They will face the limitation of crossing the Strait of Magellan to infect native species, an additional challenge beyond climate.”

Although many experts agreed with Petrina that the infection was unlikely to occur in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina’s national government announced that it would send a team of experts there to determine whether there were traces of hantavirus or whether the long-tailed mouse had reached the region.

The team will work with local biologists to trap mice at the landfill and test them for the virus. However, although two days have passed since the announcement, the experts have not yet arrived. When the BBC visited the site there were dozens of birds around the waste piles and there was no sign of an active investigation.

Epidemiologist Eduardo López, head of the Department of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Ricardo Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires, said more research is needed in the province.

“This requires further study because ecosystems are changing,” he said.

“For example, the long-tailed pygmy rice mouse, whose original habitat was the Patagonian Andes and northwestern Argentina, can now be found in the province of Buenos Aires, among other rodents that transmit the disease.”

The urgency is not only scientific but also economic. Tierra del Fuego is Argentina’s youngest and least populated province; In addition to industries such as hydrocarbon exploration and fishing, tourism is also closely followed as a source of local income.

Juan Manuel Pavlov of the Fuegian Tourism Institute said more than 95 percent of boats bound for Antarctica depart from the port. “The cruise industry, which calls at more than 500 ports a year, is the foundation of the state’s economy.”

So far, there have been no official cruise cancellations despite the increase in requests from international operators. But since the cruise season ends in mid-April, long-term effects may take months to appear.

“We have a winter season ahead of us that we expect to be very successful,” Pavlov said. “We work hard in our core markets and we don’t want something like this to overshadow everything that’s being done to prioritize people’s health.”

Life seems to be going on normally in the port of Ushuaia. Tourists hike along the beach and gather for shorter excursions – to Isla de los Estados, home to the famous “end of the world” lighthouse, or along the Beagle Channel.

“It is very reassuring that there are no cases here,” said Adonis Carvajal, who works for a tour operator.

“People are asking if there are infections in the state, and the fact that there are no reports of illness here provides calm.

“The herd may have come from the south – that’s not a denial – but it didn’t originate from here.”

Among the visitors was David Bomparp, a Venezuelan living in Medellín, Colombia, who arrived a few days earlier with his partner Daniela Sandoval.

“We planned this trip in October and only found out what it was the day before we boarded the plane,” he said.

“As far as we understood, nothing had been confirmed here, so we came without worry, observing the security measures.”

But Daniela said her mother was less comfortable.

“He was sending me Instagram reels and links all night long because he was worried,” she said. “I told him not to worry because there were no confirmed cases here.”

Nearby, Costa Rican tourist Jordan Bermúdez said his group was continuing with its plans. He said they had researched the virus before arriving from Punta Arenas in Chile on May 5, but that did not deter them.

“We arrived, found the city quite calm, did all the tours we planned and we think everything is normal,” he said.

Health officials are still trying to determine where the infection originated. They believe that one of the Dutch couples who caught the virus and died was probably “patient zero”.

Using largely border entry and exit records, authorities tried to reconstruct their journey through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding in Ushuaia.

Chilean and Uruguayan officials say the couple did not contract the virus in those countries, based on the World Health Organization’s estimated incubation period of one to eight weeks.

Petrina acknowledged that they likely contracted the disease in Argentina, but said he believed it was probably two to four weeks before the cruise. He said it could be in a mountainous region of Patagonia, perhaps in the states of Chubut, Neuquén or Río Negro.

Meanwhile, the National Department of Health has not put forward a definitive theory. “In principle, we cannot rule out that the infections occurred in Tierra del Fuego, but there is an important fact to consider: no cases have been reported in the province since hantavirus became a notifiable disease.”

It is hoped that the evacuation of passengers and crew from the MV Hondius in Tenerife may provide some clues.

But for now, many questions about how this outbreak started remain unanswered, with the Dutch couple filling in the gaps and authorities unable to fully reconstruct their travels.