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eruption of Oropouche The virus has spread in the Amazon for years, but the history of the virus has not affected the rest of the world. But that seems to be changing. In 2024, the beetle showed that it could walk.
Most of this year’s 11,000 cases occurred in Brazil and Peru, where the virus is already known, but it was also found in 2024 in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, and Cuba – the latter showing 603 cases. and broadcasting in the country for the first time. Infected travelers also carried 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 in Spain, Italy, and Germany.
For those who study Oropouche and other arboviruses—a family of viruses that are spread by animals such as mosquitoes and ticks—the situation is worrisome. Although they have information about its spread, there is not enough information to accurately predict what Oropouche will do in the future. “We have some problems, but there is no complete certainty of any part,” said Juan Carlos Navarro, director of research at SEK International University, where he heads the group of emerging diseases and epidemiology.
The first symptoms of the disease appear suddenly between three and 12 days after the bite, and usually last between four and six days. Symptoms include headache, muscle and joint pain, chills, nausea, vomiting, and light sensitivity. Skin rashes and bleeding from the mouth or nose may develop, and in severe cases, encephalitis—inflammation of the brain and its membranes—may develop. Oropouche disease is usually mild, if unpleasant, although for the first time this year Brazil recorded two deaths from the virus.
Where cases have occurred, researchers are finding information that may explain why the virus is spreading and spreading: deforestation. Changing natural habitats to grow crops, drill for oil, or mine for wealth “seems to encourage epidemics,” Navarro said. “It combines three links: the virus, the vector, and the people.”
A Natural Cycle with Gaps
In 1955, a young charcoal burner fell ill after spending two weeks working and sleeping in the forest near the Oropouche River in Trinidad and Tobago. He had a fever for three days. This was the first documented case of Oropouche virus disease. Since then, many epidemics have occurred, most of them occurring in the Amazon basin.
Navarro has dedicated 30 years to studying arboviruses such as dengue, equine encephalitis, Mayaro, and, since 2016, Oropouche. It has two transmission modes. In the forest, the reservoir of the Oropouche virus—animals that cause the virus to spread, even though they don’t get sick—are believed to be non-human primates such as neotropical marmosets and capuchins, sloths, rats, and birds. The virus was isolated from these creatures or antibodies were found in their systems. In fact, this disease is also known as “sloth fever.” It’s unclear what sloths and non-human primates do in transmission, Navarro says. “Maybe they’re growing the hosts” – meaning they’re allowing the virus to multiply in their bodies.
When there is an epidemic among people, there is a second mode of transmission. In this case, humans are the hosts, and the virus is spread among them by blood-sucking insects. The main vector that transfers the parasite between humans is the midge Culicoides paraensis, which is the size of a pinhead and is found from Argentina to the United States. Some studies show that Culex and Aedes mosquitoes can also transmit Oropouche. In fact, the first isolation of the virus originated in Trinidad and Tobago Coquillettidia venezuelensis, another type of mosquito.
