The Chubut Ministry of Health, through the Provincial Directorate of Prevalent Pathologies and Epidemiology, reported this Wednesday followingnoon that An 8-year-old girl, who lived with her family in the rural commune of Cerro Centinela, died of Hantavirus..
The confirmation of this endemic event in the region was made from the Pediatric Service and the Laboratory of the Hospital Zonal de Esquel.
About, the provincial director of Prevalent Pathologies and Epidemiology, Mariela Brito, pointed out that “the girl was admitted yesterday (Tuesday) to the Zonal Hospital of Esquel with a systemic severity picture”and specified that “later, in the evolution, he presented a cardiogenic shock that was not reversed, despite the support treatment established in the Pediatric Therapy, his death occurring this morning (Wednesday)”.
“Currently, the local Epidemiology teams, together with other services, are actively working on the coordination of actions to control the focus of this disease, identifying environmental risks and carrying out isolation instructions for close contacts of the case,” Brito explained.
Likewise, the provincial reference stressed that at this time the health teams in the area are also “working on what is the approach and containment of the family, accompanying them in such a difficult time.”
Characteristics of the disease
Hantaviruses are transmitted primarily by inhalation of virus-laden aerosols from feces, urine, and/or saliva of infected rodents.
Other possible routes of transmission are: contact with the feces or secretions of infected mice with the conjunctival, nasal or oral mucosa, or bite of the infected rodent. There is also evidence of airborne transmission from person to person.
Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome can present as a mild condition with a nonspecific febrile syndrome or reach the most severe manifestation with severe respiratory failure and cardiogenic shock.
The first symptoms are similar to flu: fever 38°C, muscle aches, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea without upper airway involvement.
Although it is difficult to specify, the incubation period fluctuates between 7 and 45 days, which is why actions to control the focus of close contacts of a positive case are relevant, as well as preventive environmental actions, in order to avoid the appearance of cases secondary.