A third person died this week in Argentina from a type of pneumonia of unknown cause, with deaths so far confined to a single clinic, health officials said on Thursday.
Nine people in the northwest Tucuman province have fallen ill with a mysterious respiratory disease, including eight medical workers at the private clinic, Tucuman Health Minister Luis Medina Ruiz told reporters.
Three – two health workers and now a patient at the clinic – have died since Monday.
Authorities are conducting tests, but Medina said they have already ruled out Covid-19, flu, influenza types A and B, bacterial Legionella disease and the rodent-borne hantavirus.
Samples were sent to the Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires.
The latest victim was a 70-year-old woman who had been taken to the hospital for surgery.
Medina said the woman “could have been patient zero, but that’s being evaluated.”
The mysterious illness claimed its first victim from health workers at the clinic on Monday, and a second two days later.
The first six patients showed symptoms between August 18 and 23.
Medina said on Wednesday the patients had been afflicted with “a severe respiratory illness with bilateral pneumonia … very similar to Covid”.
Symptoms included vomiting, high fever, diarrhea and body aches.
Of the six people treated, four were in serious condition in hospital and two were in isolation at home.
All other clinic staff were monitored.
Experts analyzed the water and air conditioning systems for possible contamination or poisoning.
The provincial health ministry said Wednesday the outbreak may have started from an infectious agent, but investigators didn’t rule out “toxic or environmental causes.”
Infectious disease specialist Mario Raya said Thursday that “at the moment we have no cases outside” the affected clinic.
Hector Sale, president of the Tucuman Provincial Medical College, added: “We are not dealing with a disease that causes human-to-human transmission,” as cases have not been identified in close contacts of any of the patients.
