An outbreak of hantavirus, which causes pneumonia and high fever, has caused 13 people to die and dozens more to be hospitalized in Chile in recent months, and health officials fear the virus is spreading to other countries in the region.
After five new cases of hantavirus infection were reported in the far north and south of Chile early this month, the government announced a national health emergency, including measures intended to control the spread of the virus.Hantavirus, which is usually transmitted by field rodents or their droppings, causes pneumonia, respiratory distress and high fever and can kill a patient quickly. About 60 percent of those infected have died. Early detection is considered the key to saving lives.
The outbreak in Chile follows one in neighboring Argentina last year in which at least 12 deaths were attributed to a new strain of hantavirus that for the first time appears to have been spread from person to person.
"Hantavirus has come to Chile, and we have to prepare ourselves for very hard times ahead in which more people become infected," said Health Minister Alex Figueroa. He urged Chileans to remain calm and to take precautions like avoiding contact with rodents and their burrows, sanitizing dwellings that are rodent-infested and safeguarding food from rodents.
Although person-to-person transmission of hantavirus is considered extremely rare, health officials and scientists have expressed fear that the hantavirus strain known as Andes, which was identified in southern Argentina last year, could be the one spreading in Chile.