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Argentine health authorities are investigating a cluster of pneumonia cases from an unknown cause that has led to three deaths out of nine cases identified so far.
The illnesses have been centered around a private medical clinic in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina’s fifth-largest city, located in the northwest part of the country.
Health officials there have been giving daily updates as they investigate the cases.
Of the nine known patients, three have died. That includes a 70-year-old suspected to be "patient zero,” who had been admitted for a surgical procedure, according to Luis Medina Ruiz, the minister of public health of Tucumán. The patient developed a lung infection around Aug. 20, Medina Ruiz said. The onset of the patient’s symptoms coincided with those of the health-care workers who also fell ill.
Symptoms have included fever, muscle aches, abdominal pain and shortness of breath, according to the Pan American Health Organization, which acts as the regional office for the World Health Organization in the Americas.
Tests for respiratory viruses including Covid-19 and flu, as well as other known viral, bacterial and fungal agents, have all come back negative, according to a statement from the PAHO, meaning the cause of the pneumonia hasn’t been identified yet. Health officials said that it’s possible the use of antibiotics may have wiped out evidence of whatever is causing the pneumonia, making it more difficult to find the culprit.
An August 30 report first identified six patients, all of whom had contact with one another at the clinic. That first group consisted of five health-care workers and one patient who was hospitalized at the intensive care unit at the clinic. On Sept. 1, another three health-care workers were found to have the illness.
As of Friday, three patients in critical condition remained hospitalized, all on mechanical or non-invasive ventilation, and three other patients were getting outpatient care, regional health officials said in their update. One person had been discharged from the hospital the night prior.
Health authorities are conducting a review of clinic personnel who were in close contact and sharing workspaces with those who have fallen ill. About 20 people have been identified and are being followed closely, Medina Ruiz said.
All patients who have developed the still-unknown illness had underlying health conditions, such as smoking, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure or a history of respiratory symptoms.
Several infectious disease experts said that the concentration of cases among health-care workers could indicate human-to-human spread of a pathogen, which would be a cause for concern.
The PAHO and the WHO are assisting in the investigation and are providing support to local health authorities, the organizations said. Contact tracing and control actions related to the health-care clinic where the outbreak occurred are being performed by local health authorities, the WHO said.
"Argentina has lots of experience in investigating and managing outbreaks of severe acute respiratory illness, particularly those caused by infections (e.g. pandemic H1N1 influenza, COVID-19, Andes hantavirus infection),” said Jake Dunning, a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute.
"Hopefully this cluster will remain relatively small and the underlying cause will be identified quickly.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t respond to a request for comment on Friday.
