Year in surveillance

Hantavirus in Argentina — 2018

Epuyén, Chubut — one of the largest documented person-to-person hantavirus outbreaks

Overview

Beginning in late 2018, the small Patagonian town of Epuyén in Chubut Province experienced an unusually large Andes virus outbreak that ultimately involved approximately 34 confirmed cases and 11 deaths over the following months. Epidemiologic investigation by Argentine national and provincial health authorities documented a clear chain of person-to-person transmission spanning multiple generations of cases — the largest and best-characterised confirmed PtP hantavirus outbreak on record. The Epuyén response involved quarantine of close contacts, hospital isolation precautions, and intensive contact tracing, and it established Andes virus PtP transmission as a confirmed feature of the strain rather than a rare anomaly. The outbreak also coincided with conditions favourable to long-tailed pygmy rice rat population growth in the affected region.