A new virus, oropouche, is extending in Brazil and has become of concern to the country’s Public Health Ministry, since it was circumscribed to the Amazon Region but has now been reported in at least 22 states and 11.000 cases during the first half of December.
Brazilian scientists said this week that the samples of the Oropouche virus recently detected in South America's largest country could belong to a new variant. According to the latest study on the subject published in The Lancet, the recent increase in cases “could be linked to a new recombinant Oropouche virus, with an increased capacity to replicate.” These findings would be in line with a similar work published last month in Nature.
Paraguayan health authorities said the number of dengue cases was declining. Still, they told the population to look out for oropouche, another mosquito-borne virus that causes symptoms similar to those of dengue. Instead of the Aedes Aegypti, or pouches is carried by the Culicoides Paraensis mosquito.