Three people have died and five are in hospital after developing a ‘pneumonia of unknown origin’ in a region of Argentina.
Health authorities are determined to identify the illness after nine people came down with it in total.
It has sparked concern after common sicknesses like Covid, influenza and hantavirus were ruled out by testing, local media reports.
Six people in a Tucumán private clinic came down with symptoms between August 18 and 22.
Today, it was announced that three more were sick. More than half of the cases are health workers.
The World Health Organisation has been alerted and the European Centre for Disease Control’s epidemic intelligence team is tracking cases.
Experts have warned it ‘shows our collective vulnerability to dangerous pathogens’ as samples undergo further scrutiny.
But all made it clear that more information is needed before alarm bells are rung.
Luis Medina Ruiz, Tucumán’s minister of health, said this week: ‘What these patients have in common is the severe respiratory condition with bilateral pneumonia and compromise in [x-ray] images very similar to Covid, but that is ruled out.’
The news is concerning, but key information on transmission and the underlying cause is required, Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global health at Edinburgh University said.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: ‘This shows our collective vulnerability to dangerous pathogens. An outbreak in any part of the world – if not quickly contained – can spread rapidly given air travel and trade.’
Prof Jonathan Ball, a professor of virology at the University of Nottingham, has theorised it could simply be a respiratory virus that diagnostic labs don’t usually test for.
He said: ‘[This] might not be new illnesses – just a cluster of rare events from known illnesses.
‘Expect more until we settle back into the normal seasonal ebb and flow of respiratory viruses.’
It comes as the Covid-19 alert level in the UK is downgraded amid falling cases.
The chief medical officers of the UK nations and the national medical director of the NHS in England have jointly recommended that the Covid alert level moves from level three to level two.
A level two alert means that ‘Covid-19 is in general circulation but direct Covid-19 healthcare pressures and transmission are declining or stable’.
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