Mysterious deadly pneumonia reminded of the emergence of COVID-19

A mysterious disease appeared in Argentina and killed several people

A mysterious pneumonia has claimed the lives of three people in Argentina in a disturbing new outbreak. Cases have been reported among eight healthcare workers and one patient in the intensive care unit in Tucuman. Experts are concerned that the coronavirus, influenza and hantavirus are excluded as the cause of the deadly disease. At the same time, there are disturbing similarities to how COVID began to spread in Wuhan at the end of 2019.

Three people have died from a mysterious pneumonia in Argentina, raising fears of a new viral outbreak. Daily Mail.

Health officials in the South American country said six more people were infected with “pneumonia of unknown origin.”

The disease has been reported in eight healthcare workers and one intensive care unit patient at a private hospital in Tucumán, a small region 800 miles northwest of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

Health officials are concerned that Covid, influenza and hantavirus are out. The fact that the disease has spread to healthcare workers—often the victims of new viral outbreaks—indicates that an infectious disease may be the culprit.

This comes two and a half years after reports of unexplained pneumonia, which turned out to be COVID-19, began leaking out of Wuhan in China in December 2019.

The first six patients began to show symptoms of the new disease between August 18 and 22.

Of the last three cases, two are hospitalized, one is under observation at home.

Luis Medina Ruiz, Tucumán’s health minister, told local media: “The common thing these patients have is a severe respiratory illness with bilateral pneumonia and impaired [рентгеновских] images very similar to COVID, but this is excluded.

The official said patients were tested for more than 30 pathogens, including “Covid, colds, flu types A and B” and all of them tested negative. The samples were sent to the National Directorate of Laboratories and Institutes of Health of Argentina for further analysis.

The hospital where the outbreak occurred is closed, and contacts of patients are being traced and isolated.

Officials are also looking into whether the spate of cases of the mysterious illness was the result of a bacterial outbreak, possibly due to contaminated water or air conditioners.

Experts in the West have said it is too early to start sounding the alarm, despite the similarity of the outbreak to the emergence of COVID.

The European Center for Disease Control’s epidemic intelligence team has been tracking a cluster of cases since Tuesday. And scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) are also monitoring the situation.

Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Health at the University of Edinburgh, comments to The Telegraph: “This is certainly a concern, but we still need key information about the transmission and hopefully the root cause. This shows our collective vulnerability to dangerous pathogens. An outbreak in any part of the world – if not quickly contained – could spread quickly through air travel and trade.”