Legionnaires’, a rare bacterial lung infection, has been identified as the underlying cause of four deaths at a clinic in the city of San Miguel de Tucuman, officials say.

                        When the outbreak was first identified in Tucuman, doctors tested sufferers for Covid-19, influenza and hantavirus, but all were ruled out.  (AFP file)

Argentine health officials said four people at a clinic in the northwestern province of Tucuman died of Legionnaires’ disease, a relatively rare bacterial lung infection. Health Minister Carla Vizzotti told reporters on Saturday that Legionnaires had been identified as the underlying cause of double pneumonia in the four, who had high fevers, body aches and difficulty breathing. The deaths, all since Monday, occurred at a single clinic in the city of San Miguel de Tucuman. The last one, on Saturday morning, was that of a 48-year-old man with underlying health problems. A 70-year-old woman who had undergone surgery at the clinic was also a victim. Seven other symptomatic cases have been identified, all from the same facility and almost all involving clinic staff, provincial officials said. Of those seven, “four remain in hospital, three of them on respiratory support and three are under home observation, with less complicated clinical symptoms,” provincial Health Minister Luis Medina Ruiz said on Saturday. “Toxic and Environmental Causes” The disease, which first appeared at a 1976 meeting of the American Legion veterans group in the US city of Philadelphia, has been linked to contaminated water or unclean air conditioning systems. When the outbreak was first identified in Tucuman, doctors tested sufferers for Covid-19, influenza and hantavirus, but all were ruled out. The samples were then sent to the prestigious Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires. The tests there pointed to the Legionnaires. On Wednesday, Medina Ruiz had said that “toxic and environmental causes” could not be ruled out. He noted that the clinic’s climate control systems are being tested. Vizzotti said authorities are working to ensure the clinic is safe for patients and staff. Hector Salle, president of the Tucuman provincial medical college, earlier this week described the bacterial infection as “aggressive.” But he added that it is not normally spread from person to person and that no close contacts of any of the 11 infected people showed symptoms. Source: AFP