Argentina investigates source of deadly hantavirus outbreak

BUENOS AIRES, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 07th May, 2026) Health authorities in Argentina are investigating whether the country was the source of an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus that spread aboard a transatlantic cruise ship.

The health emergency aboard the vessel, currently anchored offshore, comes as Argentina records a rise in hantavirus infections, which many local public health researchers attribute to the accelerating impacts of climate change.

Argentina, from where the cruise departed for Antarctica, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organisation as having the highest prevalence rate of the rare rodent-borne disease in Latin America.

Argentina’s Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 101 hantavirus cases had been recorded since June 2025, nearly double the number reported during the same period a year earlier.

Humans are typically infected through exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.