What Patagonia learned from hantavirus

{"text":[[{"start":7.65,"text":"When residents of Argentina’s Chubut province see dead rats, they douse them with bleach, double bag and burn them. They keep their homes clear of trash and weeds to avoid attracting rodents."}],[{"start":20.05,"text":"If those measures fail and a case of the hantavirus carried by the animals is suspected, strict quarantine protocols are enforced."}],[{"start":27.9,"text":"Such practices have become ingrained in Andean Patagonia, a region of densely forested mountains and glacial lakes, after two outbreaks of the disease that proved devastating — but garnered little international publicity."}],[{"start":41.849999999999994,"text":"Now the Andes hantavirus found in the region has drawn global attention, after a deadly chain of infections on a cruise ship that started its transatlantic journey in Argentina more than six weeks ago."}],[{"start":54.199999999999996,"text":"“We learnt a lot from what we lived through, which we apply now,” said Enzo Lavarra, an infectious disease specialist in Chubut who treated cases during the 2018 outbreak. “There was a lot we tried to tell at the time that fell on deaf ears. Now people are listening a bit more.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":71.8,"text":"The outbreak on board the MV Hondius has killed three people so far and prompted a complex international evacuation, repatriation and isolation operation of people from more than 20 countries."}],[{"start":84.1,"text":"It has underscored the threat of so-called zoonotic diseases that transmit from animals to humans and are seen by experts as a likely trigger of the next pandemic. "}],[{"start":95.19999999999999,"text":"Argentina’s experiences with the hantavirus and the country’s status as a possible source of the Hondius outbreak carry important lessons for management of the disease."}],[{"start":104.69999999999999,"text":"They also highlight why the risk of zoonotic conditions is growing due to trends such as climate change, increased human encroachment on animal habitats and ever more intensive livestock farming.   "}],[{"start":115.19999999999999,"text":"Argentina suffered the largest-ever cluster of human-to-human transmission of hantavirus in 2018. In the village of Epuyén, in Chubut, 34 cases were recorded and 11 people died after an infected person attended a teenager’s birthday party."}],[{"start":131.85,"text":"That outbreak gave officials valuable information about how to minimise human transmission of the virus, in part because it happened in a tiny town of roughly 2,000 people. Investigators were able to trace the spread to several social events, including the party, which was attended by about 100 people."}],[{"start":150.35,"text":"Researchers were able to conclude that hantavirus is much more likely to spread through extended intimate contact, such as among families, than in cases of brief social contact. They also observed the virus’s lengthy incubation periods of up to eight weeks before symptoms appear. "}],[{"start":167.7,"text":"“Our understanding of human transmission changed,” said Lavarra, the doctor. “After a certain number of cases, we were eventually able to insist on extensive quarantine measures in a time pre-coronavirus, when it wasn’t as accepted.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":183.35,"text":"Authorities worldwide are still grappling to contain the Hondius hantavirus outbreak, although they stress that the disease is much less transmissible than Covid-19. In addition to the three deaths, eight other cases have been confirmed or are suspected among those who were on the ship."}],[{"start":198.9,"text":"Pamela Rendi-Wagner, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said new cases among former passengers and crew may come to light in coming weeks due to the long incubation period."}],[{"start":211.6,"text":"Investigators believe the disease probably came on board with a Dutch couple who contracted it somewhere in Argentina, Chile or Uruguay and have both since died. The Andes pathogen is the only hantavirus known to transmit between people."}],[{"start":229.2,"text":"Argentine authorities have determined that the cruise ship virus sequence is closely related to a strain detected in 2018 in Neuquén, another Patagonian province. But they said they believed the likely patient zero of the cruise “had not been in areas of the Andes where the strain is endemic during the days in which the contagion is estimated to have taken place”."}],[{"start":251.29999999999998,"text":"Investigations are continuing, though experts say it may never be possible to pinpoint where the Dutch couple, who died in April, contracted the virus. They had been on a more than three-month tour of Argentina and neighbouring countries, often travelling by private car."}],[{"start":266,"text":"“This situation is unique in our history. We’ve never had someone become infected and then travel like this,” said one Argentine health official who was not authorised to speak publicly, describing how previous hantavirus cases have been mostly isolated episodes or small highly localised clusters. "}],[{"start":285.3,"text":"“We have reduced risk, but at the end of the day, it’s very difficult when you are dealing with an illness transmitted by a wild rodent present across a very, very large area.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":295.90000000000003,"text":"Scientists from a government research institute in Argentina are travelling to Ushuaia in the next few days, the far south city in Tierra del Fuego province from which the ship departed. They will test rodents and examine whether the couple contracted the virus there. "}],[{"start":310.95000000000005,"text":"An early theory circulated by officials suggested that the couple may have become infected while birdwatching at a landfill site in Ushuaia, though local authorities said that seemed unlikely. "}],[{"start":321.05000000000007,"text":"Tierra del Fuego province has never recorded cases of the hantavirus and is believed to be too cold for the long-tailed rodents that carry it. Officials hope to rule out the possibility that warming climate has allowed them to expand far south. "}],[{"start":335.50000000000006,"text":"“We think it is unlikely, but if it were true it would mean the endemic zone of the virus has expanded,” one official said."}],[{"start":341.95000000000005,"text":"Climatic changes have already contributed, experts say, to an increase in cases across Argentina in recent years despite the prevention measures. The country recorded 32 deaths and 102 cases of hantavirus in the year to June, almost double the cases in the year before.  "}],[{"start":361.65000000000003,"text":"The bulk of the increase, authorities say, is driven by the country’s central region, particularly the heavily populated Buenos Aires province, which had 43 cases. The strains present there, unlike the Andes virus, do not have recorded cases of human transmission."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":378.50000000000006,"text":"Experts say unusually heavy rains have boosted vegetation cover, “increasing food and habitat availability for the rodents in the central part of the country and allowing them to expand,” said Raúl González, a biologist and professor at the National University of Córdoba. "}],[{"start":394.80000000000007,"text":"The spread means cases are increasingly happening outside of the Patagonian region, in places where virus awareness is weaker and prevention campaigns are less prominent."}],[{"start":404.6500000000001,"text":"A 14-year-old boy died from the disease in January in the town of San Andrés de Giles in Buenos Aires’s province. His parents told local media that the local hospital “sent him home with an ibuprofen”, after he went there suffering from a high temperature."}],[{"start":419.7000000000001,"text":"Authorities say caseloads of the more dangerous Andes variant in Argentina have been largely stable in recent years. Yet the hard-won advances in prevention in South America did not stop the cruise ship tragedy, highlighting once again how the fight against animal-borne diseases needs constant attention and investment. "}],[{"start":438.1500000000001,"text":"The menace from zoonotic diseases is a prime fear for global public health authorities, especially as most experts think Covid-19 was probably of animal origin."}],[{"start":447.4000000000001,"text":"Scientists worry about a genetic change that would allow potent human-to-human transmission by an animal pathogen such as bird flu, which has been circulating widely in US farm animals. Many zoonotic diseases do not have vaccines or effective treatments."}],[{"start":462.9000000000001,"text":"Some scientists in Argentina have warned that future improvements in virus management may be imperilled by sweeping cuts to research and university funding enacted by President Javier Milei. He pulled the country out of the World Health Organization last year. "}],[{"start":478.9000000000001,"text":"“Everything we know about the hantavirus has come from decades of study, and research funding has been significantly scaled back,” said González, the biologist. “When you think about the research we will need in the future . . . it’s not a positive panorama.”"}],[{"start":494.8500000000001,"text":"Cartography by Anna Marie Alcantara and May Bancoyo-Domingo and data visualisation by Keith Fray"}],[{"start":507.00000000000006,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779000681_8227.mp3"}