Health officials said the use of antibiotic treatment could have erased evidence of the cause of the pneumonia, making it harder to find the culprit.
An August 30 report first identified six patients, all of whom had contact with each other at the clinic. This group consisted of five healthcare workers and one patient who was hospitalized in the clinic’s intensive care unit. On Thursday, three other health workers were found to have the disease.
Underlying health conditions
On Friday, authorities said they found a tenth patient, an 81-year-old man with other health problems, bringing to four the number of patients hospitalized in critical condition. Three other patients were receiving outpatient care, officials said in their update, one of whom had been hospitalized earlier.
Health authorities are conducting a review of clinic staff who were in close contact and shared workspaces with those who have fallen ill. About 20 people have been identified and are being closely monitored, Medina Ruiz said.
All of the patients who developed the still-unknown disease had underlying health conditions, such as smoking, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure or a history of respiratory symptoms.
Several infectious disease experts said the concentration of cases among healthcare workers could indicate the spread of a pathogen from person to person, which would be a cause for concern.
PAHO and WHO are assisting in the investigation and supporting local health authorities, the organizations said. The WHO said that contact tracing and control actions related to the clinic where the outbreak occurred are being carried out by local health authorities.
“Argentina has a lot of experience in investigating and managing outbreaks of severe acute respiratory diseases, especially those caused by infections (eg, pandemic H1N1 influenza, COVID-19, Andean hantavirus infection),” said Jake Dunning , senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Pandemic Sciences. “We hope that this cluster will remain relatively small and that the underlying cause will be identified quickly.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not respond to a request for comment.
Bloomberg