Europe’s first case of Oropouche fever, a viral disease similar to dengue, Zika and chikungunya, has been diagnosed in a patient with a recent history of travel to the tropical Caribbean region.
The case was ascertained by the Department of Infectious, Tropical and Microbiology Diseases of the IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria of Negrar and already reported to the health authorities and the ASL of the Veneto Region. The virus was isolated in the Department’s BSL3 laboratory. “Oropouche fever is caused by the virus of the same name (OROV), typical of the Amazon region, transmitted to humans through insect bites, mainly midges and mosquitoes,” explains Federico Giovanni Gobbi, director of the Department. “Oropouche fever is one of the most common arboviruses in South America, with over 500,000 cases diagnosed since 1955, a number likely underestimated due to limited diagnostic resources in the region.”
“Symptoms usually appear 3-8 days after the bite of the vector insect and are similar to those of other tropical viral fevers such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya: high fever (above 39°C) accompanied by headache, pain retrorbital pain, general malaise, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea, vomiting and photophobia”, adds Concetta Castilletti, head of the Virology and Emerging Pathogens Unit of the IRCCS. Sporadic cases of central nervous system involvement, such as meningitis and encephalitis, have also been recorded. In 60% of cases, after the acute phase, the symptoms recur in a less severe form, usually within two to ten days, but sometimes even after a month from the first appearance”.
“Experts point out that arboviruses, such as Oropouche, represent a public health emergency that we will have to get used to living with. The isolation of the Oropouche virus provides us with an important weapon to improve diagnostics and research.”
