An insect-borne virus has emerged in South America and two deaths were reported in two young Brazilian women due to the same. The women had no underlying health conditions. In June and July, Europe saw 19 imported cases of the Oropouche virus, as reported by the European Center for Disease Control. Spain accounted for 12 cases, Italy for five, and Germany for two.

The virus is primarily spread through insect bites, including mosquitoes, and midges and originates from pale-throated sloths, non-human primates, and birds, as per Newsweek. The symptoms include headaches, fever, muscle aches, stiff joints, nausea, vomiting, chills, and light sensitivity, which are similar to dengue fever. In extreme situations, the virus can enter the brain system and cause encephalitis, meningitis, and other potentially lethal neuroinvasive diseases. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that just 4 per cent of patients experience this.

The scientific journal Lancet Infectious Disease stated that the Oropouche outbreak this year has reached an “unprecedented scale.”

Currently, there is no vaccine available for the virus, which belongs to the same family of diseases as Zika virus and Dengue fever. According to the Centre for Disease Control, the incubation period for Oropouche virus disease is three to ten days. “Typically, disease starts with the abrupt onset of fever (38-40 degress Celcius) with headache (often severe), chills, myalgia, and arthralgia,” they added.

The symptoms of the disease can last up to seven days, however, they can reoccur a few days or even weeks later in about 60 per cent of patients. Further, weakness has been seen in several patients for up to a month following diagnosis.

Since midges are tiny insects that are less affected by typical repellents, common pest control methods like insect repellants and mosquito nets are not usually successful against them. However, chemical pesticides like DEET and deltamethrin work well against these insects.

Outbreaks of the virus have earlier been reported in countries across South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. In 2024, outbreaks were recorded in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and more recently in Cuba. Over 8,000 cases have been reported in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Cuba since the beginning of this year.

The virus got its name when it was initially discovered in the Trinidad and Tobago town of Oropouche in 1955. Even though there have been almost five lakh cases reported since then, not much is known about the illness.

Dhaka:

More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever since the start of the year, official figures showed, in the country’s worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease.

Dengue is a disease endemic to tropical areas that causes high fevers, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and, in the most serious cases, bleeding that can lead to death.

The World Health Organization has warned that dengue — and other diseases caused by mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika — are spreading faster and further due to climate change.

Figures from the country’s Directorate General of Health Services published on Sunday night said 1,006 people had died, among more than 200,000 confirmed cases.

The agency’s former director Be-Nazir Ahmed told AFP Monday that the number of deaths so far this year was higher than every previous year combined since 2000.

“It’s a massive health event, both in Bangladesh and in the world,” he added.

Among the dead are 112 children aged 15 and under, including infants, according to the official data.

This year’s figures dwarf the previous highest total from 2022, when 281 deaths were recorded.

Scientists have attributed this year’s outbreak to irregular rainfall and hotter temperatures during the annual monsoon season that have created ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

Bangladesh has recorded cases of dengue from the 1960s but documented its first outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever, a severe and sometimes fatal symptom of the disease, in 2000.

The virus that causes the disease is now endemic to Bangladesh, which has seen a trend of worsening outbreaks since the turn of the century.

Most cases are recorded during the July to September monsoon season, the months which bring the vast majority of the country’s annual rainfall, along with occasional floods and landslides.

But Bangladeshi hospitals have also begun to admit patients suffering from the disease during winter months in recent years.

Dengue wards in Dhaka’s major hospitals are currently filled with patients being treated beneath mosquito nets under the watchful and worried eyes of family members.

‘Canary in the coal mine’

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in September that the outbreak was “putting huge pressure on the health system” in Bangladesh.

The agency’s alert and response director Abdi Mahamud said the same month that such outbreaks were a “canary in the coal mine of the climate crisis”.

He said that a combination of factors including climate change and this year’s El Nino warming weather pattern had contributed to severe dengue outbreaks in several areas including Bangladesh and South America.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa such as Chad have also recently reported outbreaks, he added.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)