Year in surveillance

Hantavirus in Argentina — 2019

Continuing fallout from the Epuyén Andes virus outbreak in Patagonia

Overview

Through the first half of 2019, the Epuyén Andes virus outbreak that began in late 2018 continued to produce new cases as the chain of person-to-person transmission worked through close contacts and household clusters. By mid-year the outbreak had been brought under control through quarantine of close contacts, hospital isolation, and intensive epidemiologic surveillance, and the Argentine national surveillance system formally tallied the cumulative impact: approximately 34 confirmed cases and 11 deaths across the outbreak period. The 2018–2019 Epuyén episode remains the reference event for Andes virus PtP transmission in the medical literature and reshaped clinical-management protocols across southern South America.