Oropouche Virus: these would be the reasons why infections increased in Latin America

Worker during a day of fumigation inside a school to prevent the proliferation of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. EFE/ André Borges

Photo: (EPA) EFE – Andre Borges

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Earlier this year, infections from a insect-borne virus called Oropouche They partially exploited South America, which generated alert and concerns about the possibility of an epidemic that would affect the region’s health systems. For now, the possible threat has dissipated, with no new cases reported since September. Still, the question remains among the scientific community as to what caused this virus to spread suddenly, and whether there is a chance of this happening again.

A new study published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases gives some clues. The researchers found, for example, that the <a href="https://www.world-today-news.com/correio-newspaper-oropouche-fever-bahia-reaches-154-infected-with-the-virus-in-2024/" title="Correio Newspaper | Oropouche fever: Bahia reaches 154 infected with the virus in 2024″>Oropouche virus variant that is circulating in the region replicates much better in cells than previous variants. It was also reported that the virus has changed to such a degree that people infected a decade ago have almost no immunity against the current version.

“It is not a new virus, but it seems to replicate fasterreplicate better and be more virulent,” the virologist told Science. William De Souza, of the University of Kentucky, last author of the study.

For their part, other scientists point out that climate change, deforestation and increased human mobility could also be having an impact. It is possible that these conditions have allowed the boom in midge populations and, therefore, favored their spread.

Oropouche virus has been recorded in birds, sloths and non-human primates. For its part, its transmission in humans occurs mainly through the bite of a mosquito the size of a pinhead called Culicoides paraensisendemic throughout America.

Although, like the dengueWhile Oropouche fever is generally not serious, it can cause serious complications, such as meningitis. For the first time they registered some deaths related to the disease in July in Brazil. Furthermore, the number of cases is unprecedented, with almost 10,000 in 2024 alone in Brazil. Colombia and Peru have also been affected, although to a lesser extent.

For its part, youn similar work published in September in Nature Medicine and also conducted by Brazil-based researchers found that the strain that circulated this year has one segment of the virus that previously caused outbreaks in eastern Brazil between 2009 and 2018, and two of a virus that circulated in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador between 2008 and 2021.

The truth is that the genetic composition of the virus would explain its spreadsince it has three segments of RNA (which transmits the information contained in that gene to the cytoplasm) and when different strains infect the same animal or human cell, they can exchange segments, a process called rearrangement, to create a new virus.

Thus, the lack of immunity would be decisive. The antibodies of people infected with Oropouche in 2016 or in previous years – before the new variant began to spread widely – are practically powerless against the new strain. That could explain why cases have reappeared in the Amazon region, even though people there have been exposed to the virus for a long time.

For the moment, the scientific communities continue to study the details of the new variants of the virus that could cause new outbreaks on the continent in the coming months.

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