United States: Almost around 8,000 cases of the disease and often known by its nickname which is called sloth fever in the five countries and during the first seven months of the year 2024 and the virus is also recently cause the deaths of the two women in the Brazil and the potential death of the two unborn children.
CDC Issues Health Advisory Amid Rapid Spread
As reported by BBC, The very rapid increase in the cases of the Oropouche which is spread by biting insects, led the CDC to issues a health advisory and the alert to the doctors in the United States and the first case of the virus in the Europe and were detected in the June and July in travellers who had been infected while visiting Brazil and Cuba.
What the Oropouche virus?
This particular virus is endemic to the Amazon region of the South America that actually spreads by biting insects.
How does this virus spread?
So, this is transmitted when a person or animal is bitten by the insects carrying the virus and it is thought to be spread the most commonly by the pinhead-sized midge species. Culicoides paraensis which are abundant across large parts of the Americas, but the virus may also be spread through the bites by the Culex quinquefasciatus and Ochlerotatus serratus mosquitoes.
Where do Oropouche come from?
The virus gets its name from the village where the first case was recorded in the year 1955 and the virus was isolated from the blood of a feverish 24-year-old forest worker in the community of the Vega de Oropouche.
Since then, the virus has caused several waves across the Brazilian Amazon with some indicating as many as 100000 cases. Research done on the cases suggest that of the occurrence over 500000 cases and this may not be the actual figure because many of them are misleading and other diseases share similar symptoms with fever.
The updated records show that from the later part of 1980s, the virus start to spread in Panama, Peru, and Ecuador. However, the virus was reported in other countries from 2000 to the present year and they include Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and French Guiana.
What has caused the most recent one’s?
Striking large outbreaks were registered at the end of 2023 within the Amazonian region that was already affected by the virus and in other areas of South America. Later in June 2024, the Cuba main news reported the cases of the virus.
From 1 January 2024 to 20 July, WHO came across 8,078 of Oropouche virus . The rest of the 7,284 including the two deaths were registered in Brazil followed by Bolivia 356, Peru 290, Colombia 74 and Cuba 74
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