Year in surveillance

Hantavirus in Chile — 1996

Aysén family cluster — first Chilean evidence of household Andes virus spread

Overview

Chile's early Andes virus surveillance recorded a 1996 family cluster in the Aysén Region that, like the contemporaneous Argentine cases in El Bolsón, raised the possibility of close-contact household transmission. The cluster involved multiple family members infected in patterns difficult to explain by shared rodent exposure alone. Combined with the Argentine epidemiologic findings, the Chilean family cluster contributed to growing recognition that Andes virus could spread between people, a property unique among hantaviruses.