The Deputy Minister of Health pointed out that, for the first time, the simultaneous circulation of two arboviruses has been detected in the country during the summer season.
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 1 August 2024 — The cases of the Oropouche virus, which is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito, have spread to the 15 provinces of Cuba, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Wednesday on state television. The Deputy Minister of Public Health, Carilda Peña, pointed out that, for the first time, the circulation of two arboviruses (transmitted by mosquitoes) has been detected in the country during the summer season: dengue and Oropouche.
She also indicated that both have a very similar evolution in patients who go to health services and, in the case of Oropouche, she pointed out that very little is known about the aftereffects.
The first cases of the Oropouche virus were confirmed at the end of last May in two municipalities of Santiago de Cuba, and at that time more than 35,000 infections had been recognized.
One month later, the authorities activated the health system due to the increase in cases of dengue, whose transmitter agent is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and Oropouche, which arrives via the Culex mosquito of the Bunyaviridae family, but also via the Culicoides, popularly known in Cuba as the jején (gnat).
Durán stated that until that moment all the identified cases had evolved in a “favorable” way with an improvement in symptoms between the third and fourth day of the disease
Oropouche had then been detected in 23 municipalities, but at the beginning of July, the director of Epidemiology of the Ministry, Francisco Durán, said that it was already circulating in 39 municipalities of 12 provinces and that the only territories without confirmed cases were Havana, Pinar del Río and Las Tunas, in addition to the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.
Durán stated that until that moment all the identified cases had evolved in a “favorable” way with an improvement in symptoms between the third and fourth day of the disease.
So far this year, Oropouche fever has now been detected in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Brazil. To date, according to the Pan American Health Organization, no serious and critical cases or deaths have been reported, however the Ministry of Health of Brazil reported two deaths related to this virus on July 25.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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