The Oropouche virus is spreading to new places:
Outbreaks of Oropouche virus have flared up in the Amazon for decades, but historically the pathogen has little troubled the rest of the world. But this seems to be changing. In 2024, the virus showed that it can travel.
Most of this year's 11,000-plus cases occurred in Brazil and Peru, where the virus is an old acquaintance, but it has also been found in 2024 in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, and Cuba—the latter reporting 603 cases as well as in-country transmission for the first time. Infected travelers also transported the virus to North America and Europe: This year it was found twice in Canada and 94 times in the United States—with 90 cases reported in Florida—while 30 imported cases were found across Spain, Italy, and Germany.
For those who study Oropouche and other arboviruses—the family of viruses transmitted by arthropods such as mosquitoes and ticks—the situation is worrying. Despite having clues about its transmission cycle, there's insufficient information to accurately predict Oropouche's future behavior. "We have some pieces of the puzzle, but there is no total certainty as to what role each one plays," says Juan Carlos Navarro, director of research at SEK International University, where he heads the emerging diseases and epidemiology group.
The first symptoms of the disease appear suddenly between three and 12 days after being bitten, and usually last between four and six days. Symptoms include headaches, muscle and joint pain, chills, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light. Skin rashes and bleeding from the gums or nose may occur, and in severe cases, meningitis or encephalitis—inflammation of the brain and its membranes—may develop. An Oropouche infection is generally uncomplicated, if unpleasant, though for the first time this year Brazil recorded two deaths linked to the virus.
Where cases have occurred, researchers are increasingly detecting something that may explain why the virus is emerging and spreading: deforestation. Changing natural land to grow crops, drill for oil, or mine for resources "seems to be the main driver of outbreaks," says Navarro. "It brings together three links: the virus, the vector, and humans."
[...] In outbreaks such as the current one, as well as one in Peru in 2016, researchers have found that badly affected areas lost more vegetation prior to the onset of the outbreak compared to regions without cases. In addition, 64 years ago, the first isolation of the virus in Brazil was in a sick sloth near the construction of the Belem-Brasilia highway. Navarro points out that human interference in nature seemingly driving disease outbreaks is not unique to Oropouche; years ago, the work of his colleague María Eugenia Grillet showed how the expansion of mining and deforestation reactivated malaria in Venezuela.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday December 23, @12:29PM (3 children)
... can the next pandemic wait until 2027?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Touché) by Thexalon on Monday December 23, @01:14PM (1 child)
This disease is absolutely nothing to worry about, and you should continue acting like everything is fine even if your friends or family members are dropping dead around you. After all, our politicians with absolutely zero training in either medicine or epidemiology or public health have said so, and they would never lie to their own constituents. Also, our religious leaders, who also have no relevant training, have said that we are all protected by some sort of invisible being so long as we give them enough money. And our bosses have also said there's nothing that should convince us to not do our job without any kind of raises or bonuses due to taking on a risk of dying every time we show up in the office, even if we have to do the job of our coworkers who died too. And our retailers are also ready to send out their prettiest PR representatives to tell us that we can continue to shop in their stores as usual.
Any doctors that say differently to the general public should be threatened until they shut up.
(I wish I were being more sarcastic here.)
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23, @02:44PM
The usual life in US, eh?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23, @03:13PM
Major global pandemic during the 2017-2021 presidency. Now another one that's threatening to kick off for the 2025-2029 presidency... Seems like some kind of deity is trying to tell us something. What was it again about sending plagues?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23, @03:31PM (8 children)
Checking wikipedia, one finds...
...so a couple deaths out of roughly a million infections AFAICT.
Now if we can just keep it from mutating...
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Monday December 23, @04:35PM (6 children)
Sounds like covid
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23, @05:34PM
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday December 23, @06:34PM (4 children)
The figures for France suggest otherwise:
Now that might not seem to be a lot - but there again they were not your family so obviously they were not important.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 23, @09:05PM (3 children)
Those numbers are very untrustworthy
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday December 24, @12:05AM
So is your speculation. I have quoted figures and given a source.
The few people dying out of millions aren't important to you. You said it "sounds like Covid". I beg to differ.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 24, @01:52AM
you say so?
That quite risible. I imagine you get laughed at. A lot.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday December 24, @02:48AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23, @11:37PM
Obviously we will need to research that. Does anyone know of any cheap "gain of function" labs that might be available?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by vux984 on Monday December 23, @04:45PM (1 child)
Please avoid clickbait titles: "This" Tropical Virus is Spreading ..." and just put what "This" is in the headline. Thankfully the information was 4 words in, but the clickbait buzzfeed writing style is an abomination. (PS I know it was just copy-pasta from the source.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Kell on Tuesday December 24, @12:07AM
THANKYOU. I came here to say this. Can Soylent please be the one place we don't have to put up with clickbait bullshit?
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.