90-Second Read: Argentines hunting for source of Hantavirus outbreak trap rats in southernmost city

The state-backed Malbrán Institute, Argentina's leading research center for infectious diseases, said the team would repeat the routine for the next three days before returning with the samples to the institute's main Buenos Aires laboratory to test for Hantavirus. But provincial officials further north in Patagonia where the Hantavirus is endemic insist that the first known victims of the outbreak, a Dutch couple passionate about birds, didn't visit during the window in which it is believed they got infected. Adamant that tourism-dependent Tierra del Fuego isn't the source of the cruise ship outbreak, health authorities here say they welcome a broader objective of the investigation: figuring out if their province has Hantavirus at all at a time of global warming.

Tuesday's rat-trapping marks the start of fieldwork within Argentina's wider investigation into the origin of the contagion that struck the MV Hondius, killing three people, sickening several others and setting off a global scramble to trace passengers and their close contacts. The Hantavirus has never been recorded in Ushuaia or the wider archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. The Dutch tourists concluded a sprawling road trip across Chile and Argentina in late March with a few days of bird-watching and trekking in Ushuaia before boarding the ship April 1.

Found throughout southern Chile and Argentina, the Andes virus may be able to spread between people in rare cases. But a subspecies can be found in the forests around Ushuaia, and scientists have never examined whether it can transmit the Hantavirus. Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.