Cuba's Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) confirmed the diagnosis this Tuesday Oropouch virus in the municipality of San Nicolás, MayabequeIts presence has been reported in recent weeks in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos.
Director of Public Health in the Territory, Dr Ramon Aguilar CastilloThe virus was detected “through monitoring and surveillance activities of non-specific fever syndromes” and confirmed from samples analyzed at the National Reference Laboratory of the Pedro Curie Institute (IPK) in Havana.
Aguilar revealed There are cases of this disease in popular congregations of northern and southern urban areasAlthough It did not specify the number of victimsAccording to a report by a local station Radio Mayabeque.
“Entomo-epidemiological measures are being taken to break the chain of transmission and control the disease in the short term,” he said. Later, he said, the smog will be carried out in rural areas.
Aguilar urged people to “work with public health on hygiene” and eliminate micro-sites.
The Oropouche fever It is a disease caused by a virus of the same name. It is spread by midges Culicoides barensis -It is not found in Cuba, but in the territory of America- and Mosquito Culex quinquefasciatusIt is very common in the island and It breeds in any type of water, including sewage and contaminated water, which increases the risk in the country due to poor sanitation.
At the end of May, MINSAP confirmed The virus was responsible for several weeks of flu outbreaks detected in two municipalities of Santiago de Cuba.and declared that it had already spread to the territory of Cienfuegos.
however, Cuban health authorities have not yet released the number of patients diagnosed with the disease.. They did not say how the virus spread between those two territories, whether there was an infection or whether they were indigenous cases.
So far, no serious or critical cases or deaths have been reported, the National Director of Epidemiology said. Dr. Francisco Duran Garcia, In a special appearance on National Television News (NTV).
This is the first time the Oropouche virus has manifested itself in Cuba since it was discovered in Trinidad and Tobago in 1955.
The disease has an incubation period of five to seven days. And its symptoms are similar to those of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya: fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea are also reported.
To combat it, there is no specific treatment, only measures to reduce symptoms.
The MINSAP epidemiological alert on Oropooch virus It was not announced until two weeks after the first cases of “unspecified fever syndromes” were reported in communities in the municipalities of Zongo-La Maya and Santiago de Cuba.
Alertness to what was happening went beyond social networks Report by journalist Yosmani Mayeta LabradaA resident of the United States received the first news of an epidemiological outbreak from sources in Santiago de Cuba.
