Updated 17:30 hrs
I've found an additional statement from a Tucumán government website which indicates the 10th patient was previously hospitalized at the private clinic where the other cases were clustered, answering at least one of the questions from my original post.
He joins the nine people who had been informed this morning. Of the total who contracted the disease of unknown origin, four remain hospitalized, in serious condition, with mechanical ventilation and one on non-invasive ventilation. The other three patients are in an outpatient condition with less severe follow-up and three others died.
The Ministry of Health reports that a new patient linked to the conglomerate of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin has been detected.
Case number 10 is an 81-year-old male patient with comorbidities hospitalized in serious condition, with ARM, in the public sector. The man had previously been hospitalized in the same sanatorium as the patients with the same outbreak.
#16,982
Just a few hours after reassuring the public that the number of cases remained unchanged (see New (Sept 2nd) MOH Update On The Bilateral Pneumonia Outbreak in Tucumán Province) at 9, the Tucumán MOH website has posted a very brief - indeed, cryptic - statement indicating that a 10th case has been identified.
(translation)
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
The Ministry of Health reports that a new patient linked to the conglomerate of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin has been detected.
Case number 10 is an 81-year-old male patient with comorbidities hospitalized in serious condition, with ARM, in the public sector.
The original text reads:
El Ministerio de Salud informa que se ha detectado un nuevo paciente vinculado al conglomerados de casos de neumonía de origen desconocido.
El caso número 10 se trata de un paciente del sexo masculino de 81 años de edad, con comorbilidades internado en grave estado, con ARM, en el sector público.
I'm not quite sure how to interpret the acronym ARM, or exactly what they mean by `in the public sector'. It sounds like they are talking about a patient who is hospitalized in a different (public) hospital. Hopefully this doesn't imply a community case - one not linked to the original facility - but we'll just have to wait to see.
Hopefully we'll have more details shortly.
In the meantime, suggestions early today from the MOH that the lack of new cases may indicate a less easily transmittable illness (see below) may prove to be premature.
¨The fact that there are no more infected encourages us to think that it is an infectious agent that does not have a great power of contagion. Usually all viruses, bacteria and fungi have the ability to spread through a medium; This, apparently, is a case that does not produce significant contagion, or the other possibility is that it is a contagious germ with a longer incubation period, he extended.
