Argentine city tries to shrug off hantavirus ship ‘patient zero’ suspicions

The search for answers about the MV Hondius outbreak has pointed towards Ushuaia and a huge landfill site

Argentina’s city “at the end of the world” Ushuaia, the jump-off point for expeditions to the Antarctic, has been labouring under suspicion of being the source of the deadly hantavirus outbreak that killed three cruise ship passengers.

The MV Hondius set sail from this spectacular Patagonian port, sandwiched between snow-capped mountains and the South Atlantic, on April 1.

Five days later, a Dutch man who had travelled through South America on a birdwatching trip with his wife, developed symptoms of hantavirus, a rodent-borne disease.

He, his wife and another of the ship’s passengers later died of the virus, which has revived bitter memories of the emergence of Covid-19, despite health experts playing down similarities between the viruses.

The search for answers about the outbreak has pointed towards Ushuaia, even as authorities there insist the likelihood of the Dutch couple becoming infected during the 48 hours they spent in the city before their cruise was “almost zero”.

As winter draws near, the tourist season was winding down.