The partner of the man who was hospitalized for 13 days at the Ramón Carrillo hospital in Bariloche with hantavirus also contracted the disease. The woman is asymptomatic, the viral load is very low and her health is good.
«We detected the case by monitoring close contacts. It happens that when there is a case of hantavirus, close contacts are isolated for 45 days and, every 5, a PCR for hantavirus is done«specified Yesica Espasandin, head of the Molecular Biology Laboratory at the Bariloche hospital and clarified: «We were able to detect it very early and it is fine. “He has a low viral load.”
It all started at the beginning of May when a 30-year-old man was admitted to the Intensive Care area due to respiratory failure due to hantavirus. He had had a fever for several days, body pain, throat pain, and had some injuries. Although he carries out rural tasks, it was suspected that the infection may have occurred in his house at kilometer 20, west of Bariloche, since he works in the steppe where there are usually no rodents. His condition was serious but after 13 days, he was discharged.
Upon confirmation of the diagnosis, his partner was hospitalized preventively. The woman also does rural work on a farm.
«Treatment with ativiral was started. This can only be done when hantavirus is detected early. When the case is advanced, there is already involvement of other parts of the body, as happens with pulmonary syndrome, for example. In these cases, the antiviral does not have an important effect to improve the patient’s condition,” said the graduate in Biotechnology and doctor of Medicine.
In this case, he commented, it is unknown if the contagion occurred directly through the man or “due to exposure since they lived in the same place.” «The incubation time of the virus is up to 45 days maximum. A patient can become infected 48 hours after the onset of symptoms, fever, up to five days later,” Espasandin warned. Environmental Health will study not only the couple’s workplace but also the site surrounding the home.
