Sawt Falasteen - Argentine scientists lay first traps in hantavirus hunt

The MV Hondius cruise ship, where a hantavirus outbreak on board killed three people and triggered a global health scare, set sail from the city at Argentina's southernmost tip on April 1.

Beginning Monday, biologists from Buenos Aires are spending several days setting traps at various locations on the southern island of Tierra del Fuego to analyze whether the captured rodents carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only one known to spread between people.

The rare respiratory disease, for which there is no cure, typically spreads through the urine, feces and saliva of infected rodents.

Biologists and national park staff wearing masks and gloves set up dozens of small rectangular metal cages on trails outside Ushuaia as night fell.

Others were placed in Tierra del Fuego National Park, 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of forests, lakes and mountains located 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the city.

The team set up to 150 traps, according to a local healthcare source.

Provincial officials insist that Tierra del Fuego has not had a case of hantavirus since its reporting became mandatory 30 years ago -- unlike in provinces to the north, such as Rio Negro and Chubut.

Local scientists believe it is more likely that the infections aboard the cruise ship occurred in another region.

Two of the vessel's hantavirus victims -- a married Dutch couple -- had traveled extensively in Argentina for four months, with forays into Chile and Uruguay.

H.Darwish--SF-PST