On their way back to Italy, two individuals who had just traveled to Cuba ended up in hospitals with signs of Oropouche sickness, according to research published in the Lancet. For the very first time, an Oropouche virus has been identified in a region that is not located in Latin America. It has already been established that the virus, which is transmitted by infested mosquitoes and midges, is associated with stillbirths and birth malformations, which has raised concerns about the possibility of a similar outbreak to the Zika virus that raced across the continent early in 2015.
One of the travelers (a 45-year-old man) who had traveled to Havana and Santiago de Cuba at the beginning of June, experienced symptoms almost immediately before seeking medical assistance in Fori. Regarding the other traveler (a woman of 26 years old), she experienced fever and diarrhea upon her return to Verona on May 26. This was after she had returned from a two-week excursion to the province of Ciego de Ávila in Cuba.
Individuals who are infected often get a fever anywhere from three to eight days after the infection starts. Headaches, rash, and inflammation in the muscles or joints are some of the more noticeable symptoms. Other symptoms, such as gastrointestinal distress and sensitivity to light, may also be experienced by certain individuals.
Arboviruses such as Oropouche fever, Dengue, Zika, or Chikungunya, constitute one of the public health emergencies we must get used to living alongside; […] climate change and the increase in the movement of human populations risk making viruses [that were] once confined to the tropical belt endemic even in our latitudes, explained Dr Concetta Castilletti, head of the Virology and Emerging Pathogens Unit at the hospital outside Verona.
Compared to the 832 instances that were reported back in 2023, Brazil has documented 7,284 incidents involving Oropouche this year. On May 27 the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba made the initial report of Oropouche cases recorded. Since that time, a total of 74 cases have been confirmed, the bulk of which have been found in the regions of Santiago de Cuba and Songo La Maya.
