This week, the Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology of Verona, Italy, diagnosed the first case in Europe of Oropouche Fever, in a patient who traveled to Cuba.
According to a report from the Republicthe case was referred to the competent health authorities of the Veneto region, as well as to the international information and monitoring services.
The iO Foundation, which develops projects in Global Health, especially in the field of Infectious Diseases and travel medicine, offered more details about the case.
Tourist visiting Cuba brings Oropouche Fever to Italy
This is a 26-year-old woman, with no relevant medical history, who traveled to Ciego de Ávila, in central Cuba, from May 12 to 26, 2024, to “visit friends and family.”
According to him article, upon his return to Italy on May 26, presented symptoms including diarrhea, general malaise, high fever, severe headache and nausea during the flight. Likewise, she reported arthralgia and retro-orbital pain. “No skin rash or exanthema was observed,” he notes.
The patient herself also reported that her relatives in Cuba had similar symptoms. Endpoint RT-PCR specific for Oropouche virus (OROV) was then performed, which confirmed the diagnosis of infection.
Cases of Oropouche Fever
According to Federico Giovanni Gobbi, director of the Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, Oropouche Fever is one of the most widespread arboviruses in South America, with more than 500,000 cases diagnosed from 1955 to the present.
Even so, he considered that this is a probably “underestimated” figure, given the limited diagnostic resources available in the region.
The latest epidemiological update indicates that, between the end of 2023 and 2024, “there are more than 5,000 cases of Oropouche Fever in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, and recently also in Cuba.”
In Cuba, cases have been officially confirmed in Santiago de Cuba, Mayabeque, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.
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