Hantavirus is on the rise in Argentina, where a stricken cruise ship began its journey
By ISABEL DEBRE Updated 10:43 PM PDT, May 6, 2026
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Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise. (AP video shot Victor R. Caivano, Nico Deluca and Carlos Antilef)
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Daisy Morinigo and David Delgado said they initially thought their 14-year-old son had the flu when he came down with a fever and body aches. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andrés de Giles sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest. On January 1, they rushed Rodrigo to intensive care. He died just two hours after a hantavirus test came back positive. (AP video shot by Victor R. Caivano, Nico Deluca and Carlos Antilef)
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The rural family home where Rodrigo Morinigo, who died from hantavirus in January at the age of 14, lived with his family when he contracted the illness in San Andres de Giles, Argentina, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
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Daisy Morinigo sits with her husband David Delgado as she speaks about their son Rodrigo Morinigo, who died in January of hantavirus, in San Andres de Giles, Argentina, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
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David Delgado cries as he speaks about his son Rodrigo Morinigo, who died in January of hantavirus, in San Andres de Giles, Argentina, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
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The MV Hondius cruise ship is anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
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Health workers in protective gear arrive to evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise.
The health emergency aboard the ship that’s moored across the ocean comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.
Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.
“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”
A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low. The Andes strain only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.
Continue/Read Original Article: Argentina investigates hantavirus outbreak on Atlantic cruise | AP News
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