The first case of Oropoch has been detected in Europe, days after two women died in Brazil, as the virus continues to spread rapidly across South America. According to The Lancet, two people who had recently traveled to Cuba reported to hospitals with symptoms of the deadly disease upon their return to Italy.

The first patient, a 26-year-old woman, suffered from high fever and severe diarrhea after returning to Verona from a two-week trip to Cuba’s Ciego de Ávila province. The second traveler, a 45-year-old man who had been in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, had to seek medical help after developing symptoms.

The Department of Tropical Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Scientific Research Hospital Sacred Heart Don Calabria, north of Verona, carried out tests that detected the presence of Oropoch in the patients’ blood. Both passengers have fully recovered.

For the first time, the virus has been diagnosed outside Latin America

This is the first time the virus – called ‘sloth’ fever because it has the ability to transmit between primates, sloths and birds, occasionally spreading to humans via mosquitoes and mosquitoes in the wild – has been found outside of South America. “We should be concerned,” Dr Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph. “Things are changing and maybe becoming unstoppable.”

Lancet says that since the diagnosis of these two travellers, more people travelling to the infection-prone region have tested positive for the virus.

Most cases of the virus, which causes miscarriages and birth defects, have been reported in Brazil, as well as Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Cuba’s Public Health Ministry first reported Oropouche cases in May. Since then, a total of 74 cases have been confirmed – most of them in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Songo la Maya.

The number of infected people may increase significantly

According to the Lancet, the actual number of infections may be much higher than reported so far, especially in the province of Ciego de Avila. Scientists are also concerned about the number of passengers flying between Cuba and Europe during the summer, which could reach 50,000 people in August alone.

What is the Oropoch virus?

Oroposh fever, resulting from OROV infection, is an emerging zoonotic disease that is transmitted primarily through bites from infected animals. Culicoides parensis – Commonly referred to as biting mosquitoes, and sometimes through mosquitoes.

according to experts, C. parensis It is commonly found in water bodies such as ponds, lakes, and rivers, and in humid tropical regions, particularly in some areas of various South American countries, and it plays an important role in the transmission dynamics of OROV.

Signs and symptoms

Experts say that although most Oropos infections are mild and have symptoms similar to dengue, some signs and symptoms do occur, including:

• Headache
• Body pain
• nausea
• haste
• sensitivity to light
• gastrointestinal problems, such as indigestion, stomach pain, sickness, and diarrhoea

The virus also attacks the brain, causing meningitis or encephalitis.

First deaths

Last month, Brazil reported the world’s first deaths from the disease, when two women in their 20s died in the Bahia state in the country’s northeast. The women, aged 21 and 24, suffered from severe bleeding and hypotension and died in July.

In June, Brazil’s health minister reported that a pregnant woman had lost her baby at 30 weeks, and that Oropoch virus was detected in the umbilical cord and organs.

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