This Tropical Virus is Spreading Out of the Amazon to the US and Europe
upstart writes:
The Oropouche virus is spreading to new places:
Outbreaks of Oropouche virus have flared up in the Amazon for decades, but historically the pathogen has little troubled the rest of the world. But this seems to be changing. In 2024, the virus showed that it can travel.
Most of this year's 11,000-plus cases occurred in Brazil and Peru, where the virus is an old acquaintance, but it has also been found in 2024 in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, and Cuba-the latter reporting 603 cases as well as in-country transmission for the first time. Infected travelers also transported the virus to North America and Europe: This year it was found twice in Canada and 94 times in the United States-with 90 cases reported in Florida-while 30 imported cases were found across Spain, Italy, and Germany.
For those who study Oropouche and other arboviruses-the family of viruses transmitted by arthropods such as mosquitoes and ticks-the situation is worrying. Despite having clues about its transmission cycle, there's insufficient information to accurately predict Oropouche's future behavior. "We have some pieces of the puzzle, but there is no total certainty as to what role each one plays," says Juan Carlos Navarro, director of research at SEK International University, where he heads the emerging diseases and epidemiology group.
The first symptoms of the disease appear suddenly between three and 12 days after being bitten, and usually last between four and six days. Symptoms include headaches, muscle and joint pain, chills, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light. Skin rashes and bleeding from the gums or nose may occur, and in severe cases, meningitis or encephalitis-inflammation of the brain and its membranes-may develop. An Oropouche infection is generally uncomplicated, if unpleasant, though for the first time this year Brazil recorded two deaths linked to the virus.
Where cases have occurred, researchers are increasingly detecting something that may explain why the virus is emerging and spreading: deforestation. Changing natural land to grow crops, drill for oil, or mine for resources "seems to be the main driver of outbreaks," says Navarro. "It brings together three links: the virus, the vector, and humans."
[...] In outbreaks such as the current one, as well as one in Peru in 2016, researchers have found that badly affected areas lost more vegetation prior to the onset of the outbreak compared to regions without cases. In addition, 64 years ago, the first isolation of the virus in Brazil was in a sick sloth near the construction of the Belem-Brasilia highway. Navarro points out that human interference in nature seemingly driving disease outbreaks is not unique to Oropouche; years ago, the work of his colleague Maria Eugenia Grillet showed how the expansion of mining and deforestation reactivated malaria in Venezuela.
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