90-Second Read: As Hantavirus fears mount, birders defend Argentine cruise city as avian paradise

The World Health Organization has said the first person with a confirmed case may have been exposed to rodents, which can carry Hantavirus, while on a birding trip. The Andes variant of Hantavirus is the only strain that can be transmitted from person to person, though health officials have reiterated that it is not Covid and does not spread like the pandemic virus. On Friday, Juan Petrina, the province of Tierra del Fuego's environmental health and epidemiology director, showed reporters a graph of Hantavirus cases in the area and said that it was unlikely the first cases originated there. Last week, The Associated Press, citing two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak, said the government's leading hypothesis was that the couple contracted the virus while bird-watching.

Esteban Daniels, a birding guide in Ushuaia, said the landfill attracts eye-catching birds, the white-throated caracara is a scavenger that finds easy meals there, not the Hantavirus. Hantavirus is typically contracted through contact with the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents, like rats and mice. Basanth Sadasivan, 28, who was on board the MV Hondius for a 22-day cruise in February, said the outbreak came as a surprise to him given the ship's hygiene measures. That trip "included visits to sites where the species of rat that is known to carry Andes virus was present," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Thursday briefing. The virus identified on board the Hondius is "near identical with the strain that recently caused a well-documented human-to-human outbreak in Argentina.

Now, bird-watching may be at the epicenter of the outbreak on board the MV Hondius, in which three people have died and five others were sickened. South America has more bird species than any other continent, and Argentina is a superb destination for birders," he said by email. Ushuaia is surrounded by beautiful beech forests and snow-capped mountains, with Tierra del Fuego National Park just outside the city. That outbreak, in Patagonian Argentina's Chubut province, petered out after 34 documented infections and 11 deaths. Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

I've included data starting in 2000, but I can go back as far as you like," Petrina said at the news conference. It is a specific type of niche tourism that is well known, and many of the birders who arrive are well-informed," he said by text. I have been visiting the rubbish dump with birdwatchers for at least 25 years," he said by email. Attempts to contact the city of Ushuaia by email were not successful. Still, the week's focus on Ushuaia's municipal landfill had locals defending the location and the region.