CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela confirmed on Tuesday that three people died of infections of hantavirus, but stressed there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the South American country, which has rarely reported cases of the rodent-borne disease in humans.
The Health Ministry said hantavirus was also suspected in the deaths of two health workers in the southwestern state of Barinas. Those cases remain under investigation and were not linked to the three fatalities in the eastern state of Anzoátegui, about 655 kilometers (407 miles) away.
Both states were spared the worst of the back-to-back major earthquakes that hit northern Venezuela earlier this month.
The ministry described the deaths in Anzoátegui and Barinas as isolated incidents that "do not represent a risk to the general community." But it added that health workers would be sent to the affected states to "guarantee the health security of all Venezuelans," without elaborating.
The Venezuelan Medical Federation, a national professional group, said the deaths in Anzoátegui were from the same family in the rural municipality of Miranda in the south of the state.

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