BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in northern Argentina has claimed a sixth life, provincial health officials said.
The latest victim, who died late Sunday, was an 81-year-old patient with comorbidities who had been "in a serious condition" receiving treatment for pneumonia, the health ministry in Tucuman province said in a statement.
The outbreak in the same San Miguel de Tucuman clinic, some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north of Buenos Aires, was first detected on August 18.
Eleven people have been affected so far, including eight staff at the private clinic.
The Malbran Institute in Buenos Aires, where authorities had sent samples for testing, identified the previously mystery illness as Legionnaires' after ruling out Covid-19, flu and hantavirus.
The disease, which first appeared at a 1976 convention of the American Legion veterans group in the United States, has been linked to contaminated water and unclean aeration systems. Symptoms include high fever, aches and trouble breathing.
The clinic is temporarily closed and a "clinical and epidemiological investigation" is underway to determine the source of the outbreak, provincial health minister Luis Medina Ruiz told local media.
No new cases have been detected since August 25.