Cuba faces spread of Oropouche virus

However, the Caribbean's rainy summers, fuel shortages, and poor public sanitation are making this effort difficult.

Mosquitoes are the intermediate hosts that transmit the Oropouche virus fever. Photo: Pexel

More than 500 cases of the virus have been recorded since May, when the disease was first detected in eastern Cuba, health officials said this week.

Oropouche virus, also known as “sloth fever,” is transmitted by mosquito and fly bites and has rapidly spread throughout Cuba’s major cities and provinces, including the capital Havana. Symptoms typically include fever, body aches and nausea, although the disease is rarely fatal.

“Before, all neighborhoods were sprayed every week… but now, due to lack of fuel, they only focus on specific cases where fever outbreaks occur,” said Luís Aguilar, a sprayer in Havana.

Shortages of fuel, food and medicine have hampered efforts to control mosquito-borne diseases such as oropouche and dengue fever, officials said. There is no specific treatment or vaccine for the oropouche virus.

Oropouche is named after a village in Trinidad and Tobago where the virus emerged in 1995. Since then, about 500,000 cases have been recorded. It is transmitted by mosquitoes and Aedes aegypti, from a natural reservoir that includes sloths, non-human primates and birds. However, scientists ’ knowledge of the disease is limited. Leading medical journal Lancet even called it a “mysterious menace” in a recent report.

Hong Hanh (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/cuba-doi-mat-voi-su-lay-lan-cua-virus-sot-con-luoi-post310112.html