Argentine health authorities are working to trace the source of a hantavirus outbreak linked to the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which departed from the port of Ushuaia — the southernmost city in Argentina, in the province of Tierra del Fuego — on 1 April. Three passengers have died from the virus, and tests on survivors confirmed infection with the Andes strain, the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, found primarily in parts of Argentina and Chile. Despite intense international scrutiny, Argentina's health ministry has stated that it is "not possible to confirm" the origin of the contagion.
The first passengers to develop symptoms were a Dutch couple who arrived in Argentina on 27 November and spent months travelling by car through Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship. Argentine authorities consider it unlikely that infection occurred in Ushuaia itself, where no confirmed hantavirus case has been recorded in three decades. Nevertheless, a team of scientists is being dispatched to the region to capture and analyse rodents — the primary carriers of the disease — to check for any possible presence of the virus. Argentina has also sent 2,500 testing kits to the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, Senegal, and South Africa.
The World Health Organization, which has categorically ruled out the start of a wider epidemic, notes that the risk to the general public remains "absolutely low" and that human-to-human transmission does not occur easily. Experts are keen to temper comparisons with Covid-19: a specialist at the Pasteur Institute in French Guiana pointed out that at its most contagious, the Andes strain allows one person to infect at most two others, only in situations of close contact with symptomatic individuals carrying very high viral loads — a transmission profile entirely unlike that of a coronavirus.
Argentina has recorded 101 hantavirus cases and 32 deaths since July 2024, a slight increase on previous seasons but still within the country's historical annual average of around 100 cases. Scientists attribute the uptick partly to rodent behaviour linked to climate patterns: a severe drought in 2023–24 followed by heavier rainfall boosted vegetation and food supply for rodents. Argentina holds the highest case total in Latin America but remains far behind Asia and Europe, where thousands of cases occur annually. The key concern in the Americas is severity — fatality rates for American strains can reach 50%, compared with up to 15% for strains found elsewhere.
The outbreak has nonetheless placed Argentina in an uncomfortable spotlight at a sensitive moment. The WHO Director-General urged Argentina to reconsider its decision, formalised in March under President Javier Milei, to leave the organisation — a move that mirrors a similar step taken by the United States. Argentine scientists who have studied hantavirus for decades warn that deep cuts to science, healthcare, and education spending risk undermining the country's proven capacity to manage endemic diseases. "The experience and knowledge to tackle the hantavirus exist, and Argentina has them," said one researcher. "The problem is that investment is needed — and that is not what is happening now."