Hantavirus is in the news worldwide after it caused fatal infections in at least a couple of Cruise ship passengers.

The ground zero – that is where the infection of cruise passengers first occurred – is still yet to be determined.

The Dutch vessel MV Hondius deparated from the Argentina’s southernmost city, Ushuaia. A landfill site on the outskirts of Ushuaia has been potentially marked as a source of infection.

The Argentine health officials there in Ushuaia deny that their city is the source of infection.

It’s going to take a longtime to establish a source and even then, it may never be conclusively established just like coronavirus.

“Lab leak theory” ( from Wuhan lab) was prominent for COVID virus along with “animal origin theory ( Wuhan market).

But with the recent Hantavirus break, an “animal origin (rodents)” is being looked at and there is no suggestion of a lab origin so far.

References

BBC News. 10 May 2026. Tourist hotspot at ‘end of the world’ denies causing hantavirus outbreak.

BBC News.1 March 2023. Covid origin: Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory is so disputed.

BMJ 9 Sept 2024. Will we ever know where covid-19 came from? BMJ 2024; 386 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1578(Published 09 September 2024)Cite this as: BMJ 2024;386:q1578

BBC News. 19 Sept 2024. Genetic ghosts suggest Covid’s market origins.

BBC News. 26 Jan 2025. CIA says lab leak most likely source of Covid outbreak.

WHO News. 27 June 2025. WHO Scientific advisory group issues report on origins of COVID-19..

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