Climate change is paving the way for vectors of tropical diseases to spread in Europe too. It is gradually getting warm enough here for Asian tiger mosquitoes, yellow fever mosquitoes and the like. They transmit infectious diseases like this, for example. West Nile Fever (WNV) or that Dengue.
Oropouche fever in Italy
But these are still usually travelers who bring the infection home with them: “Currently, mosquito-borne diseases occur in Germany mainly as imported infections, i.e. in travelers returning to a country with the occurrence of endemic diseases (e.g. malaria , West Nile fever, dengue fever, chikungunya fever, Zika fever). However, due to climate change, autochthonous cases – i.e. infections acquired in Germany – may occur or increase in the future,” the document writes. Robert Koch Institute (RKI) (external link).
Now the first case of Oropouche fever has been reported in Italy Italian Institute of Health Sacro Cuore Don Calabria (IRCCS) (external link). But the patient had also already traveled to the tropical Caribbean region and was infected there, so he was not infected by a mosquito in Italy.
What is Oropouche fever?
Oropouche fever is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes or small flies/gnats (Culicoides paraensis). This makes the virus one of the so-called arboviruses. The general term arbovirus includes viruses that reproduce in arthropods, such as mosquitoes or ticks, as well as in vertebrates (birds, mammals). According to the RKI, these viruses can be transmitted to vertebrates by arthropods through bites or stings during a blood meal.
Oropouche fever is one of the most widespread arboviruses in South America. From 1955 to today, more than 500,000 cases have been diagnosed, a number probably underestimated given the limited diagnostic resources in the distribution area, according to Federico Giovanni Gobbi, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology of the IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria de Negrare.