The first cases of Oropouche have been detected in Europe, days after two women died in Brazil after contracting the virus that is spreading rapidly in Latin America.
Two people who had recently travelled to Cuba reported to hospitals with symptoms of Oropouche disease on their return to Italy, the Lancet reported.
The first patient, a 26-year-old woman, suffered fever and diarrhoea after returning to Verona on May 26 from a 2-week trip to Cuba’s Ciego de Ávila province.
The second traveller, believed to be a 45-year-old man, who travelled to Havana and Santiago de Cuba in early June, quickly developed symptoms before seeking medical help in Fori, northern Italy, on June 7.
The Department of Tropical Infectious Diseases and Microbiology of the Scientific Research Hospital Sacred Heart Don Calabria, north of Verona, carried out tests which showed the presence of Oropouche in the patients’ blood.
Both travellers made a full recovery.
It is the first time an Oropouche infection has been diagnosed outside of Latin America. The virus, which is spread by infected midges and mosquitoes, has already been linked with stillbirths and birth defects, raising fears of a repeat of the Zika virus outbreak that swept the continent beginning in 2015.
“We should definitely be worried. Things are changing and may become unstoppable,” Dr Danny Altmann, a Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph.
Oropouche is part of the arbovirus family that includes the Zika virus and Dengue and is usually recorded in the Amazon rainforest.
Infected individuals typically develop a fever three to eight days after infection. Common symptoms include rashes, headaches, and muscle or joint pain. Some individuals may also experience gastrointestinal symptoms and sensitivity to light.
So far, the majority of cases have been reported in Brazil, but the virus has also been detected in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.
Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health of Cuba first reported Oropouche cases on May 27. Since then a total of 74 cases have been confirmed – the majority of them in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Songo La Maya.
The Lancet warned that the true number of infections could be much higher than has so far been reported, particularly as Ciego de Avila province, where one of the travellers had been, was not among Cuban areas where World Health Organisation reported Oropouche virus at the time the diagnosis.
The Lancet also expressed concern about the number of travellers flying between Cuba and Europe during the summer, which could reach up to 50,000 people in August alone.
There are also fears that rising global temperatures could bring more humans into contact with viruses like Oropouche.
“Arboviruses such as Oropouche fever, Dengue, Zika, or Chikungunya, constitute one of the public health emergencies we must get used to living alongside,” said Dr Concetta Castilletti, head of the Virology and Emerging Pathogens Unit at the hospital outside Verona.
“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,” she said.
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Late last month, Brazil reported the world’s first deaths from the virus after two women in their twenties succumbed to the illness in the northeastern state of Bahia.
Before the deaths, which came just days after the women reported symptoms, there had been “no report in world scientific literature on the occurrence of deaths from the disease”, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said.
The two women, aged 21 and 24, suffered severe abdominal pain, bleeding and hypotension, and were reported dead on July 25. A third potential Oropouche death – of a 57-year-old man – is under investigation.
“We don’t know enough yet about Oropouche to know what surprises it may hold,” said Dr Altmann. “But two deaths of a relatively small number of infections sounds rather worrying.”
Brazil has recorded 7,284 cases of Oropouche this year, up from 832 in 2023.
Brazil’s health ministry has reported four cases of microcephaly – where a baby’s head is much smaller than expected – in newborns of mothers infected with the virus, as well as the death of a foetus.
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