First case in Europe: a man infected in Italy

Berlin. For the first time in Europe, someone has tested positive for Oropouche fever. The virus was detected in a man in Veneto.

The first case of this kind in Europe Oropush-Feber Occurred. A patient from Veneto, Italy, who had recently visited the Caribbean, tested positive for the virus at the Hospital del Sacro Cuore Santa Calabria (IRCCS) in Negrar. The Veneto health authorities and international surveillance agencies were immediately notified. The possibility of transmission of the virus through potential vectors such as mosquitoes and mosquitoes will now be investigated.

“Oropouche fever is caused by a virus of the same name (OROV), which is usually widespread in the Amazon and is transmitted to humans through the bites of insects, especially mosquitoes and midges,” explained Federico Giovanni Gobbi, head of the department of infectious, tropical and microbiological diseases at IRCCS, the Italian news agency ANSA.

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Symptoms of Oropouche fever are similar to those of other tropical viral fevers

Concetta Castilletti, head of the IRCCS Virology and Emerging Pathogens Unit, told Italian media, symptom Oropouche fever develops three to eight days after the insect bite. The symptoms are similar to other tropical viral fevers such as dengue, Zika or chikungunya and include high fever, headache, eye pain, malaise, muscle and joint pain, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light. In rare cases, the central nervous system may be affected, resulting in meningitis and encephalitis. About 60% of patients experience a milder recurrence of symptoms after the acute phase.

Since there is no specific treatment or vaccine for Oropouche fever, the focus is on treat Relieve symptoms and monitor the patient. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most patients recover within 7 days. However, in individual cases, recovery may take several weeks.

RKI: Oropouche fever is spreading widely in South America

The basis for counting Oropouche is Robert Koch Institute (RKI) The most extensive Arboviral diseases In South America, more than 500,000 cases have been diagnosed there since 1955. It is found mainly in the Amazon region and is primarily transmitted to humans through insect bites.

According to La Repubblica, despite the presence of insects of the genus Culicoides in Italy, experts from the Superior Institute of Health currently do not see an increased risk of autochthonous transmission (i.e. local spread) because the specific vector, Culicoides parasitica, present in … has not yet occurred in Europe. A vector is a transport vehicle that allows the introduction of a DNA sequence into a recipient cell.

The current epidemiological situation shows that between the end of 2023 and 2024, more than 5,000 cases of Oropouche fever were reported in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and most recently Cuba.

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