First modification: 09/02/2022 – 01:50 Last modification: 09/02/2022 – 01:48 Buenos Aires (AFP) – Argentina reported a third death from bilateral pneumonia of unknown origin in the province of Tucumán (northwest) and It is being investigated whether it is the zero patient of the outbreak, until now confined to a clinic, health authorities reported this Thursday. “This is a 70-year-old patient who was hospitalized in a private sanatorium,” said Provincial Health Minister Luis Medina Ruiz, reporting her death at a press conference. Among those infected, the Ministry of Health ruled out covid, flu and influenza as causes. This Thursday, the minister also ruled out that the origin could be hantavirus or legionella. “We are studying the origin of the outbreak and the epidemiological link, we are still in the process of investigation,” he said. Until Wednesday, the authorities had reported six cases and this Thursday they reported three more infections. 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 that has been isolated as a precaution. “So far we have no record outside that institution,” said infectious disease doctor Mario Raya, deputy director of the Zenón Santillán Health Center hospital, on Thursday. “It is an outbreak, in a certain place, with a specific cause and a certain number of people. So far everything about the pathology that may be is under investigation, “he added. The AFP tried to contact the clinic where the cases were registered. os, but there were no comments. Relatives who are outside the sanatorium did not want to make any statements either. the date of appearance (of symptoms) of the other patients.” “It is not very clear what the start was because everything is around August 20. We understand that it is patient zero at first, but that is under study,” he added. Medina Ruiz. The samples of the first six cases are being investigated by the Malbrán Institute laboratory, the main benchmark in the country. The three new reported 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,” said Medina Ruiz. She is a pharmacy assistant who remains hospitalized with assistance respiratory infection, a nurse also hospitalized and another who remains without serious symptoms and isolated at home. “Until now we have not found anything that allows us to know what was the cause of the outbreak and therefore, since it is a disease that we do not know what it consists of, we don’t know the evolution well,” he said. As reported, “most of the patients began with vomiting, high fever, diarrhea and body aches, with a more complex evolution in some.” The first six infected had started with symptoms between August 18 and 22. Of this first group of infected, two remain hospitalized and one under home isolation, authorities indicated. “What these patients have in common is severe respiratory symptoms with bilateral pneumonia and compromise in images very similar to covid, but that is ruled out,” Minister Medina Ruiz had expressed on Wednesday. It is being investigated whether the infections could have occurred through the water pipes or in the pipelines of the air conditioning of the sanatorium. © 2022 AFP