Mysterious pneumonia kills two people in Argentina and hospitalises four more

Two people have died from a mystery pneumonia in Argentina, in scenes that echo the early days of the Covid pandemic.

Health officials in the South American country said a further four people have been hospitalised with ‘pneumonia of unknown origin’.

The cases are among five health workers and one ICU patient treated at a private hospital in Tucumán, a small region 800 miles northwest of the capital Buenos Aires.

No new cases have been reported since August 22, but officials are concerned because Covid, influenza and hantavirus have all been ruled out.

The fact it has spread to health workers – often the victims in new viral outbreaks – indicates the culprit may be an infectious disease.

It comes two-and-a-half years after reports of an unexplained pneumonia began to leak out of Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

Luis Medina Ruiz, Tucumán’s minister of health, said on Wednesday: ‘What these patients have in common is the severe respiratory condition with bilateral pneumonia and compromise in [x-ray] images very similar to Covid, but that is ruled out.’

He said the patients were tested for more than 30 bugs — all of which came back negative.