Public health officials have revealed yet another reason to pack your bug spray when you travel.
An “emerging” threat known as Oropouche virus, spread through the bites of mosquitoes and midges, is on the rise in the Americas and beyond.
From the start of 2024 to Aug. 1, more than 8,000 cases of the virus have been reported, primarily in Brazil, where two people have died from the disease. The country’s more than 7,000 cases so far this year mark a significant increase from the 832 infections recorded there in 2023.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Florida Department of Health have now announced that at least 20 travel-related Oropouche cases have been detected in Florida, including nine last week.
Those who were infected had returned from recent travel to Cuba and Brazil. Oropouche cases have also been detected in Europe, according to news reports, with people getting sick in Spain, Italy, and Germany. Other South American countries experiencing an uptick in the virus include Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. (The CDC maps at the top of this page show affected areas in South America and Cuba.)
Oropouche Virus, aka Sloth Fever: Origins and Symptoms
First detected in Trinidad in 1955 (Oropouche is the name of a community on that Caribbean island), the virus is endemic in South America’s Amazon basin. There, Oropouche affects birds, rodents, monkeys, and sloths—hence the disease’s nickname, “sloth fever.” Mosquitoes and tiny biting flies, sometimes called “no-see-ums,” are responsible for transmitting the virus from those animals to humans.
In people, typical Oropouche symptoms are similar to those of other mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and dengue: fever, chills, headache, muscle pain, and joint aches.
Symptoms usually last a week but can, in rare cases, lead to severe and even life-threatening conditions such as hemorrhaging and meningitis. Pregnant people are at higher risk for complications and severe conditions.
Preventing Oropouche Virus
There are at present no vaccines or medications to prevent or treat Oropouche virus.
Your best course of action is to avoid mosquito bites in the first place by using insect repellent properly and sleeping in rooms with screens on windows and doors whenever possible.
The CDC currently recommends exercising usual precautions against mosquitoes and biting flies when visiting South America, while the agency advises “enhanced” precautions for travel to Cuba. That means, in particular, that “pregnant people should reconsider non-essential travel to Cuba,” per the CDC’s guidance.
For more information about avoiding the virus, see the CDC’s Oropouche prevention tips.