Argentina is sending health experts to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the country, to investigate whether passengers on a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak were exposed to the virus before departing for Antarctica.
Part of the investigation is to determine if travelers may have been exposed to rodents carrying the Andes virus during sightseeing and bird-watching excursions in Ushuaia prior to the cruise ship's departure on April 1.
Before boarding, the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
The statement from the health ministry also said that “Tierra del Fuego has not reported any hantavirus cases since mandatory notification of the disease began in 1996.”
The WHO said the first confirmed cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay before boarding the cruise. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said investigators are focusing on locations “where the species of rat that is known to carry Andes virus was present.”
Authorities are also tracing the Dutch tourists’ footsteps through the forested hillsides of Patagonia in southern Argentina, where some infections are clustered.
The outbreak has been linked to at least three deaths on the cruise ship: a 70-year-old Dutch man who died April 11, his 69-year-old wife who died April 26, and a German woman who died May 2.
Passengers who tested positive were infected with the Andes virus, a South American strain of hantavirus that can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe and potentially fatal respiratory disease. WHO says Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to spread between humans.
Argentina has reported 101 hantavirus cases since June 2025, nearly double the number reported during the same period a year earlier.
Argentina is also sending diagnostic kits and genetic material to laboratories in Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as international investigators continue tracing contacts and monitoring potential exposures connected to the cruise.
“We will be monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” said the CDC, adding that it will “continue to update as more information becomes available and remains committed to protecting the health and safety of the American public.”