Three people with one bilateral pneumonia from unknown they died in Argentina, in a private clinic located in the province of Tucumán. Luis Medina Ruizprovincial minister of health Argentinianexplained that the patients were “tested for Covid, influenza A and B, hantavirus and a panel with FilmArray to exclude 25 germs “. All, he specified, with “result negative“. Health authorities, consulted by local media, suspect that it may be an outbreak of legionellabut it is still too early to provide definitive information.
I received symptoms have been identified between the 18 and the 22 August: fever, myalgia, abdominal pain, and dyspnoea. Since then, taking into account the deaths, the authorities have identified in total new ones people affected by the pathology. They were all in the same health center, the private clinic Luz Medicain the town of San Miguel, but despite this the experts reassure: there is no evidence that the disease is transmissible from person to person. The origin of these pneumonia could be traced, in fact, in the clinic: the structure, now isolated, is subjected to a thorough investigation to check for the presence of the bacterium responsible for legionellosis.
The three victims are a 45-year-old nurse, a 68-year-old doctor and one 70 year old woman who was admitted to the clinic for having had gallbladder surgery. According to the minister Ruiz the 70-year-old could be the “patient zero“. He then specified that in the last few hours three new suspected cases have been detected “of health personnel presenting symptoms and who worked in the same place where they were infected” the other six identified. The three are hospitalized, but so far none have undergone assisted ventilation.
The provincial official asked calm to the population and stressed that “The situation is under control, patients are hospitalized and isolated”. From the institute Malbran of Buenos Aires assure that the first results of the analyzes are expected before the weekend.