The virus normally spread in the Amazon region is transmitted to humans by insect bites, particularly midges and mosquitoes. “Monitor and supervise to promptly identify potential public health risks” said Gobbi Director of the Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology of Negrar
14 JUN –
The Department of Infectious, Tropical and Microbiology Diseases of the Irccs Sacro Cuore Don Calabria of Negrar has diagnosed the first case in Europe of Oropouche fever, in a patient with a recent history of travel to the tropical Caribbean region. The case has already been reported to the health authorities and the local health authority of the Veneto Region, as well as to the international information and monitoring services. The virus was isolated in the Department’s BSL3 laboratory, the first step towards developing specific diagnostic tests and studies on the ability of potential vectors (mosquitoes and midges) also spread here to convey the virus.
“Oropouche fever is caused by the virus of the same name (OROV), discovered in 1955 in the blood of a forestry worker from Trinidad and Tobago. It is a virus normally spread in the Amazon region, but what is more relevant is that it is a virus that is transmitted to humans by the bites of insects, in particular midges and mosquitoes – he explains Federico Giovanni Gobbi, director of the Department of Infectious, Tropical and Microbiology Diseases of the Irccs Sacro Cuore Don Calabria of Negrar -. Oropouche fever is one of the most widespread arboviruses in South America, with over 500,000 cases diagnosed from 1955 to today, a number that is probably underestimated given the limited diagnostic resources available in the area of diffusion. From the latest epidemiological update, between the end of 2024 and 2024, there were more than 5,000 cases of Oropouche fever in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, and recently also in Cuba”.
“The symptoms of Oropouche fever usually appear 3-8 days after the bite of the vector insect, and are largely similar to those of other tropical viral fevers such as dengue, Zika or chikungunya: high fever (above 39°C ) accompanied by headache, retrorbital pain, general malaise, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea, vomiting and photophobia – continues Concetta Castilletti, head of the Virology and Emerging Pathogens Unit of the Sacred Heart Don Calabria of Negrar -. Sporadic cases of central nervous system involvement, such as meningitis and encephalitis, have also been recorded. In approximately 60% of cases, after the first acute phase, the symptoms recur, in a less severe form: usually within two to ten days, but also after a month from the first appearance”.
“Arboviruses such as Oropouche fever, or such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya – the experts point out – constitute one of the public health emergencies with which we must get used to living. Climate changes and the increase in the movement of human populations risk making viruses once confined to the tropical belt endemic in our latitudes too. It is essential to always be prepared to respond to the emergency of pathogens that are not usually widespread in the Mediterranean area, and in this respect, having managed to isolate the OPOV virus provides us with an additional weapon to refine diagnostics and research. Timely diagnosis and constant surveillance, combined with public health interventions such as disinfestations, remain the main tool to contain these risks.”
“The diagnosis of Oropouche fever carried out by the Irccs Sacro Cuore Don Calabria – comments Gobbi – confirms the importance of having specialized facilities, capable of constantly monitoring the progress of arbovirosis and other transmissible diseases. The dual specialization of our Irccs in infectious and tropical diseases, and the fact that a traveler’s medicine service has been present at our hospital for over thirty years, put us in a position to be able to promptly identify the emergency of potential risks of public health, which in this way can be managed early on thanks to the consolidated collaboration with the health authorities of the province of Verona and the Veneto Region”.
June 14, 2024
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