A scientific mission was set to kick off the search Monday for rodents that may be hantavirus carriers after an outbreak on a cruise ship departed this region at the southern tip of Argentina on April 1.For several days, biologists from Buenos Aires will set traps at various locations on the southern island of Tierra del Fuego to analyze whether the captured rodents carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only one known to spread between people.
The mission is critical since the outbreak aboard the Hondius led to three deaths and triggered global alarm.
The first person to die from the disease, a Dutchman, had spent 48 hours in the picturesque city of Ushuaia with his wife -- who died two weeks later -- before embarking on the cruise, raising suspicions that they had contracted the virus in Argentina.
Provincial officials vehemently deny this hypothesis.
They insist that Tierra del Fuego province has not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago, unlike in provinces to the north, such as Rio Negro and Chubut.
