Official data minimize the presence of the disease and admit only a few severe cases of the Oropouche virus
14ymedio, Madrid, 29 August 2024 — There is concern on the Island after the director of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, Francisco Durán, spoke on Wednesday of a “considerable increase” in cases of Oropouche fever. Since the detection of the first patient in May, 506 cases have been diagnosed, “the lowest figure in the Latin American and Caribbean region,” the doctor said. But the situation on the ground does not reflect the official optimism.
“In 99 municipalities?” questions one of the thousands of users who have reacted on networks to Durán’s statements. “I would say that in all the houses and state hotels of Cuba there is no one left who has not been sick with either dengue or Oropouche. Having it diagnosed is not worth the five pesos since there is a lack of reagents, even for a minimal leukogram, which makes it difficult. How can we expect a confirmation of antigens?
“If they don’t count those who have not gone to the doctor, the figure remains very small. At least where I live even the dogs have caught it,” says a reader of Cubadebate.
Durán, who mentioned the presence of fever in all the Cuban provinces, added that “so far no serious cases or deaths have been reported, and 80% of the people who have been suspected of contracting the disease without testing positive have recovered at home.” How?
“If they don’t count those who have not gone to the doctor, the figure remains very small. At least where I live even the dogs have caught it.”
Agustín has been in bed for 21 days, confined to his home in El Globo, in Calabazar. Although his friends consider him a very healthy man, he points out that the virus left him “fried,” and only after these three weeks has he been able to talk.
Durban insisted that at first it was thought that the virus had no complications, but recent studies – especially in Brazil – have revealed serious cases “with encephalitis, meningitis, maternal-child transmission, abortion, fetal death, four newborns with microcephaly and two deaths.” In Cuba, he boasted, there have only been “clinical conditions with meningitis, with satisfactory recovery.”
Meningitis as a complication associated with Oropouche has made parents tremble, fearful of contagion. Although arbovirosis is only transmitted by the bite of the mosquito, the networks have been filled with messages in which fear is expressed about the possibility that meningitis – which is transmitted by contact and through the air – will circulate in schools. The fear is, for now, unfounded, but that has not mitigated the tension as the school year approaches.
“I hope that measures are taken – at least the obligatory mask at school and hand gel. People send their children with everything,” says a mother. “Likewise,” another replies, her face showing concern, “I am upset with that story of meningitis, with the children going to school now.”
Durán’s words about how to prevent the disease have also irritated the population. The official stressed that the most important thing is “the sanitation of the environment, since Oropouche is transmitted by the bite of the mosquito of the genus Culex and the culicoid (jején, or gnat), which breed in dirty water.”
“With the greatest respect, don’t scare the people anymore,” a man said on Facebook. Drinking water runs in the streets, the little that comes in. The sewers are a joke; garbage overruns the streets of any municipality; the heat is infuriating due to the lack of power, and the mosquitoes and jejenes have a good time. Nothing is fumigated, for God’s sake, Dr. Durán.”
The sewers are a joke; garbage overruns the streets of any municipality; the heat is infuriating due to the lack of power, and the mosquitoes and jejenes have a good time
The minister described the epidemiological situation in general as “complex,” since influenza and dengue are circulating simultaneously.
Oropouche was first detected in 1955 near the river from which it inherits its name, in Trinidad and Tobago, and is also known as “sloth fever,” since the first researchers discovered it in a three-toed sloth.
In 2024, Oropouche arrived in Cuba and other countries in which there had never been a precedent, such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. To date, there are more than 8,000 cases, and the Pan American Health Organization issued an epidemiological alert in July 2024. Several cases have already been detected in Europe, most of them in Spain (16), imported by travelers arriving from Latin America.
On Tuesday, U.S. health authorities said they have identified 21 cases of Oropouche fever among people returning from Cuba, three of whom had to be hospitalized.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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