A pneumonia of unknown origin killed a fourth victim on Saturday in Tucuman, in the northwest of Argentina, announced the ministry of Health of the province.
“The case is a 48-year-old male patient with comorbidities who was in serious condition in a public hospital,” the Tucuman Ministry of Health said on its website.
This is the fourth death in less than a week: two members of the nursing staff at the private clinic in San Miguel de Tucuman died on Monday and then Wednesday. On Thursday, a 70-year-old woman, a patient in the same clinic where she had undergone surgery, died.
A total of 11 people showed similar symptoms, and seven are still undergoing treatment, according to the ministry. Of the ten cases originally recorded, eight were health care workers at the same private clinic.
Samples sent for analysis have revealed cases of ‘legionellosis’, a serious lung infection caused by a bacteria called Legionella, the local daily reported on Saturday. The Gaceta citing sources from the Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires where extensive examinations are underway.
The Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires, a reference in the country for infectious diseases, has not yet announced the results of these examinations.
COVID-19, influenza, type A and B influenza, and hantavirus (transmitted by rodents) in particular have been ruled out, provincial health minister Luis Medina Ruiz said on Wednesday.
The provincial Minister of Health had put forward the hypothesis of an infectious agent on Wednesday, but specified that “toxic or environmental causes” were not excluded.
Analyzes are in progress on the clinic’s water and air conditioning systems.
“It would not be a disease that results in person-to-person transmission, since close contacts of these patients do not show any symptoms,” said Wednesday the president of the Medical College of the province of Tucuman, Hector Dirty. While expressing his “concern” for a manifestly “aggressive” pathology.