Argentina
has registered a
third death
from
bilateral pneumonia of unknown origin
in the province of
Tucumán
(northwest of the country) and
it is being investigated whether it is patient zero of the outbreak
, health authorities reported Thursday.
"This is
a 70-year-old patient
who was hospitalized in a private sanatorium," said the provincial Minister of Health,
Luis Medina Ruiz
.
Among those infected, the Ministry of Health
has ruled out covid
,
flu
and
influenza
as causes.
"We are studying the
origin of the outbreak
and the epidemiological link, we are still in the process of investigation," explained the minister.
Until Wednesday,
the authorities had reported six cases and, this Thursday, three more infections.
This deceased was not sanitary
The third deceased was the only one among those infected who
did not belong to the health personnel of the private clinic
in
San Miguel de Tucumán
(1,300 km north of Buenos Aries), where the cases were reported and who has been isolated as a precaution.
The new victim "had undergone surgery for a gallbladder problem and reoperated twice. From then on he had
a picture of pulmonary infection
that coincides with the date of appearance (of
symptoms
) of the other patients," said the minister.
"It is not very clear what the start was because everything is around August 20. We understand that it
is patient zero
, but that is under study," added Medina Ruiz.
The samples of the
first six cases
are being investigated by the laboratory of the Malbrán Institute, the main benchmark in the country.
The
three new registered cases
"are health personnel from the sanatorium who began with symptoms around August 20 and 23, so in principle they correspond to the same outbreak and the same place of contagion," Medina Ruiz said.
The first six infected had started with
symptoms
between August 18 and 22.
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