The General Directorate of Public Health of the Canary Islands Health Service has received notification from the Ministry of Health of the first imported case of Oropouche virus in the Canary Islands. This is a 49-year-old man residing in Gran Canaria who began to present symptoms compatible with the infection after returning from a trip to Cuba.
Given the presence of symptoms such as fever, diarrhea and joint pain, this person was referred by his Primary Care physician to the Insular-Maternal and Child University Hospital Complex, where samples were taken due to the suspicion of being a case of Oropouche virus given the compatible clinic that the patient presented.
These samples were sent for analysis to the National Center for Microbiology, an organization that has just confirmed the positive, given that the tests carried out in the Canary Islands for the detection of dengue, zika and chikungunya had been negative.
The patient, who has evolved favorably after the administration of the indicated medication, has not required hospital admission and continues under home epidemiological monitoring.
This is the first case of Oropouche virus detected in the Canary Islands, after the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) has reported several cases in other autonomous communities such as Galicia, Andalusia, the Basque Country and Madrid, all of them in people who had recently traveled to Spain from Cuba.
Oropouche Virus
The Oropouche virus, first identified in 1955 in Vega de Oropouche (Trinidad), is a disease transmitted through the bite of midges (Culicoides paraensis and Culex quinquefasciatus), which are not currently present in European territory, since their usual habitat is Latin America.
The main symptoms of this infection are vomiting, nausea, fever, headache and diarrhea, among others, and its duration is usually between five and seven days. In very rare occasions the disease presents severe conditions with aseptic meningitis.
So far this year, more than 7,700 cases have been reported in countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Cuba and Colombia, so the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an epidemiological alert on August 1, urging countries to strengthen surveillance and improve laboratory diagnosis to identify and control the virus.
