AREQUIPA, Peru – The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported that at least a dozen European tourists who visited the island in July contracted Oropouche fever.
A report from Europa Press provides details from an ECDC document on communicable disease threats for the period between July 27 and August 2.
According to the document, three new cases of the virus have been recorded in Spain, all of them travelers coming from Cuba, and five more in Italy.
The cases in Spain were reported in (and reside in) three different autonomous communities. The onset of symptoms ranged from May 30, 2024, to June 17, 2024.
All those affected experienced mild clinical symptoms (fever, myalgia, skin rash, etc.), and all have recovered. There is no connection between them, except for a travel history involving Cuba.
On June 7, the first European case of Oropouche was reported in Italy, in a 26-year-old woman who returned to the Veneto region on May 26, after visiting the Cuban province of Ciego de Ávila from the 12th of that month.
With no significant medical history, the young woman developed symptoms during her return flight to Italy, including diarrhea, general malaise, high fever, severe headache, and nausea. She also experienced arthralgia and retro-orbital pain.
Initially, health authorities suspected dengue, but rapid tests came back negative, as did those for detecting zika and chikungunya. Finally, molecular tests confirmed Oropouche disease.
After being admitted to the hospital, the patient reported that her relatives in Cuba had experienced similar symptoms.
Subsequently, two other cases were confirmed in Italy in June and another in July, all travelers returning from Cuba. Additionally, a fourth case was retrospectively identified in a traveler returning from Brazil, with symptoms starting in late March 2024.
On July 29, two more confirmed cases of the disease were reported in Germany in travelers who had visited the island.
According to the ECDC report, the symptoms appeared on June 16 and July 2, during their stay in Cuba. One of the cases had fever, myalgia, and headache.
Meanwhile, Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Public Health, Carilda Peña García, confirmed to Canal Caribe that there are cases of Oropouche fever and dengue in all provinces of the island.
“There are cases of Oropouche in every province of the country. Therefore, even if there is no circulation in a specific municipality, it is present in the province, and if you travel, you can be bitten by the mosquito,” the deputy minister warned.
Additionally, she stated that dengue is an endemic disease on the island.
According to official Cuban media, for the first time, Cuba is facing the circulation of two arboviruses at this time of year with very similar initial progressions.
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