MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ushuaia landfill scrutinized in cruise ship hantavirus outbreak probe

Several of the roughly 150 tourists who set sail for Cape Verde on 1 April had visited the landfill, which is frequented by birdwatchers from around the world, drawn by scavenger species

Seven kilometers from downtown Ushuaia, the municipal landfill serving Argentina's southernmost city has become one of the focal points of the epidemiological investigation into the hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. Health teams are searching the site for traces of infected rodents. The landfill is frequented by birdwatchers from around the world, drawn by species such as the white-throated caracara, a scavenger bird endemic to the region.

Several of the roughly 150 tourists who set sail for Cape Verde on 1 April had visited the landfill, including the Dutch couple, aged 69 and 70, who were the first to present symptoms at sea. The pair had spent four months traveling overland through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding. Symptoms appeared within days of departure, placing the likely point of infection on land within the incubation window, which can extend up to three weeks.

The World Health Organization reports eight suspected cases linked to the cruise, five laboratory-confirmed, and three deaths. Only one of the fatalities has been confirmed as caused by the Andes virus, the sole hantavirus strain capable of human-to-human transmission.

Authorities in Tierra del Fuego province await the results with skepticism. No hantavirus case has ever been recorded in Ushuaia or elsewhere in the province. The landfill site is fenced, so tourists watch birds from outside or along a trail, and infection risk in open-air settings is low. The host of the Andes south variant, the Oligoryzomys longicaudatus rodent, inhabits the woodlands of central Patagonia, roughly a thousand kilometers north of Ushuaia, in the provinces of Neuquén, Chubut and Río Negro. Investigators are examining whether the Dutch couple traveled through those areas in the weeks before boarding.

Ornithological guide Esteban Daniels, who led other cruise passengers on bird-watching tours, told EL PAÍS he doubts the landfill is the source: “It doesn't make much sense to talk about the landfill — at most there could be rats there, not the relevant mice.”

Argentina is experiencing its deadliest hantavirus season, with 101 cases and 32 deaths since mid-2025, nearly double the figure for the equivalent prior period. Scientists and physicians have warned that budget cuts and President Javier Milei's withdrawal from the WHO have weakened epidemiological surveillance. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Milei to reconsider; the government replied that the agency was “putting politics ahead of evidence.” The Health Ministry's investigation remains open.