Should we fear a new pandemic? Three people have died since Monday in Tucuman, in northwestern Argentina, from severe pneumonia, cases extremely localized around the same clinic. If the symptoms resemble those of Covid, the virus which appeared in China in 2019 and which killed 15 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), has however been ruled out. Franceinfo takes stock of the information available on this new pathology. Nine cases, three deaths, located in the same clinic Nine cases in total, including eight members of the nursing staff, have been identified, with symptoms appearing between August 18 and 23, explained at a press conference, Thursday, September 1, the provincial Minister of Health, Luis Medina Ruiz. Two members of the nursing staff at the private clinic in San Miguel de Tucuman, located 1,300 km from Buenos Aires, died on Monday and Wednesday, and the minister announced the death of a third person on Thursday. This 70-year-old woman was a patient of this clinic. This patient “had been operated on for a gallbladder problem, then re-operated twice. From then on, there was a picture of pulmonary infection which coincided with the onset [des symptômes] in others,” said Luis Medina Ruiz. She could “in principle be ‘patient zero’, but that’s being examined.” Infectious disease specialist Mario Raya, deputy director of the Zenon Santillan Health Center, the main hospital public of Tucuman, also assured Thursday that “for the moment, we have no case outside this establishment. Symptoms similar to those of Covid In-depth examinations are underway at the Argentine reference laboratory, the institute Malbran in Buenos Aires, and results are expected soon.But already, Covid, flu, influenza type A and B, and hantavirus (transmitted by rodents) in particular have been ruled out, Luis Ruiz Medina announced on Wednesday. Common symptoms are “severe respiratory status with bilateral pneumonia, and imaging very similar to Covid, but this has been ruled out,” he also reported. “Most started with vomiting, high fever, diarrhea and aches, with an evolution n more complex in some.” Luis Medina Ruiz, Provincial Minister of Health Of the six patients still alive, four are hospitalized with more or less serious symptoms, and two are followed in isolation at home. The three new cases revealed on Thursday are a 40-year-old nurse’s aide and nurse, and a 30-year-old nurse with comorbidities. Ongoing analyzes to determine the origin of this disease Regarding the origin of the pathology, the provincial Minister of Health on Wednesday speculated that it could come from an infectious agent, but that were not excluded ” toxic or environmental causes”. Therefore, analyzes are also being carried out on the clinic’s water and air conditioning systems. “So far, we haven’t found anything that allows us to know the cause of the epidemic. Since we don’t know what it is, we don’t know its evolution well,” he said. Human-to-human transmission a priori ruled out According to the provincial Minister of Health, no case has been identified among close contacts of patients to date, a “positive news” according to him. “It would not be a disease that leads to person-to-person transmission, since the close contacts of these patients do not show any symptoms”, explained Wednesday, in the same direction, the president of the Medical College of the province of Tucuman, Hector Sale. While expressing his “concern” for a manifestly “aggressive” pathology. “There are emerging diseases every year which are subject to more or less increased surveillance depending on their characteristics and the place where they appear”, assures the Midi libre Mircea Sofonea, lecturer in epidemiology at the University of Montpellier. “Argentina is not China. Population density and connections to the rest of the world are lower, so the risk of global spread is more limited.” We must not transpose the trauma of Covid-19, even if the threat of a new epidemic exists. Mircea Sofonea, lecturer in epidemiology at the University of Montpellier at the “Midi libre” “If the presence of a new pathogen is confirmed, the research work has only just begun…” concludes Mircea Sofonea.