The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control warns and alerts of 19 cases that occurred in June and July of 2024. It has spread for the first time in few EU countries namely; Spain, Italy, and Germany. The early origins of this disease prevalence were in Peru’s Madre de Dios in 1994 but the disease was of a comparatively larger magnitude in the same region on February 2016.
The oropouche virus disease is a zoonotic disease caused by the OROV. The symptoms of this disease are sudden onset of high fever, headache, myalgia, joint pain and vomiting. In some patients, aseptic meningitis can occur. It is speculated that this disease manifests in two cycles; the first cycle which is urban is transmitted by either the Culicoides paraensis midge or the infected mosquitoes such as Culex quinquefasciatus, Aedes serratus, and Coquillettidia venezuelensis. The second cycle, which is a sylvatic type of transmission, in which sloths and monkeys are the principal hosts. Trinidad and Tobago now have a test to determine the surveillance of this catastrophic disease. The fever that is characteristic of oropouche is caused by a variety of the strains and this raises an uncertainty as to which animals serve as reservoirs. During the urban cycle, C. paraensis breeds in the tree holes and the decaying cacao and calabash pods. It feeds on human blood, and after a blood meal, transmission of the virus takes roughly 4-6 days. Currently, there is no treatment for the disease. The Brazilian Ministry of Health have reported 6 cases where the OROV disease could have been possibly passed from mother-to-child during pregnancy. However, this is yet to be confirmed. It is still of utmost importance that pregnant women who are planning to travel to endemic countries that are impacted by the OROV infection, should be educated about the possible risks of a congenital OROV infection.
Personal protective methods should be incorporated when travelling to epidemic areas so as to reduce the risk of bites; use of repellants, wearing long-sleeved shirts and trousers that reach your ankles, and making use of a mesh mosquito bed that is treated with insecticides. These measures are to be taken if the doors and windows are not blocked from disease-carrying insects or that the room could be air-conditioned or even when one is involved in outdoor activities in those infested areas.
Credit: ECDC website, Science Direct.
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