The World Health Organisation is monitoring a cluster of pneumonia cases from an unknown cause in Argentina, in an outbreak that so far has included three deaths. The 10 cases are linked to a single private clinic in the city of San Miguel de Tucuman. Tests for known respiratory viruses and other viral, bacterial and fungal agents were all negative. Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert, said the cause is likely something the patients inhaled.
It’s doing to the lungs what COVID does. But the total of nine patients infected have not tested positive for novel coronavirus. Or for flu, Hantavirus or more than two dozen other pathogens.