By NewsDesk  @bactiman63

Health officials in Argentina are reporting a hantavirus case confirmed in the city of Bariloche in the province of Río Negro, Argentina.

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

The patient is a 22-year-old man who is admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the local hospital after registering the first symptoms of the disease on December 31: he remains stable.

Faced with the situation, the local health authorities carried out an epidemiological investigation to determine the place where he contracted the disease: a place near Lake Gutiérrez, a field in Comallo and another in the Lake Mascardi area are the possible contagion scenarios. The young man’s family will be isolated for 45 days to prevent transmission of the disease.

Faced with the first hantavirus registry of the year, the Municipality of San Carlos de Bariloche recommended increasing care to avoid contagion of the virus transmitted by the long-tailed mouse: through its fecal matter or urine it spreads the viral disease.

The most common form of transmission is by breathing in contaminated places, whether they are open or closed, although it can also be transmitted by a rodent bite or by direct contact with an infected person.

Initial symptoms are flu-like and include fever, muscle aches and abdominal pain: however, the most characteristic symptom is shortness of breath, similar to Pneumonia, which can lead to respiratory failure and death.