SCIENTISTS have raised the alarm over a little-known brain-attacking virus carried by sloths that is currently on the move. Infections are starting to pop up far from the Amazon rainforest , where Oropouche virus is traditionally endemic. Places where the virus reaches are at risk of explosive outbreaks.
An epidemic which hit Belem, Brazil, in 1961, infected 11,000 people within just a few weeks, for example. Most Oropouche infections are mild, with symptoms similar to Dengue , including headache , body pains, nausea, a rash and bleeding gums. But the virus can also attack the brain leading to meningitis or encephalitis , which can be fatal.
Oropouche fever is not known to have killed anyone, but a few suspected fatalities are under investigation. In the first half of this year, Brazil recorded 5,530 human infections, compared to just 836 in the whole of 2023. Outbreaks have also been reported in neighbouring Bolivia, Colombia, Peru.
Ecuador, French Guiana, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago have also recorded cases. More worryingly, Cuba - which is other side of the Caribbean Sea - reported its first outbreak in May. One of the people infected travelled back to Italy with the disease, making it the first case to be recorded in Europe.
Deforestation of the Amazon is behind the spread in cases, according to a paper in the Lancet Regional Health . Increased urbanisation of the rainforest and climate change are also likely making it worse, they added. Danny Altmann, a Professor of Immu.
