Latest news with #OropoucheVirus
Time Business News
25-07-2025
- Business
- Time Business News
Next-Gen Breakthroughs Transform Influenza Diagnostics
Influenza diagnostics refers to methods and devices that are used to detect influenza virus infections in individuals, including rapid antigen tests, molecular assays (such as RT-PCR), and immunoassays. The market for influenza diagnostics is increasing due to increasing global awareness about infectious diseases, increasing incidence of influenza and increasing outbreaks, increasing demand for rapid and accurate testing, increasing demand for progress in clinical technologies and further emphasis on the identity of initial diseases and the identity of early diseases by governments and healthcare organizations. Key Growth Drivers and Opportunities Global Awareness about Infectious Diseases: Global awareness about infectious diseases increases the demand for increasing, accurate, accurate and comprehensive testing. Recent experiences with epidemic such as public health campaigns, media coverage, and Covid-19 have increased the importance of the general population of viral transmission and timely diagnosis. As a result, the healthcare provider and the government are prioritizing investment in clinical infrastructure, rapid testing development and monitoring systems to prevent large -scale outbreaks. This awareness leads to maximum adoption of influenza diagnostic tools in hospitals, clinics, airports and even home settings, which promotes continuous market growth. Challenges Influenza diagnostics faces the high cost of advanced testing technologies in the market, low income and clinical equipment limited to clinical equipment in rural areas and the limits of variability in test accuracy-especially with antigen tests that may be false negative. Additionally, the seasonal nature of influenza may demand ups and downs, affecting continuous revenue creation and investment. Regulatory obstacles and skilled personnel need to be widely adopted to adopt molecular diagnosis. Innovation and Expansion Quest Diagnostics Gets CDC Contracts to Create Oropouche Virus and H5 Avian Flu Tests In October 2024, leading diagnostic information services provider Quest Diagnostics announced that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded it multiple contracts to support testing and ongoing laboratory readiness for two newly discovered infectious diseases in the Americas. By guaranteeing that a national commercial laboratory provider may promptly augment public health laboratories in the case of an infectious disease epidemic in humans, the agreements will enhance the country's readiness for avian influenza and Oropouche viruses. The FDA Approves the First Over-the-Counter Flu and COVID-19 Test at Home In February 2023, the first over-the-counter (OTC) at-home diagnostic test that can distinguish and identify influenza A and B, sometimes referred to as the flu, and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A single-use at-home test kit, the Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Home Test yields findings from self-collected nose swab samples in around half an hour. A single-use test for those exhibiting symptoms and indicators typical of a respiratory tract infection, including COVID-19, is the Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Home Test. The test is available without a prescription and may be done entirely at home with nose swab samples that people 14 years of age or older self-collect. Inventive Sparks, Expanding Markets Investing in major development strategies for influenza diagnostics manufacturers, investing rapidly and in multiplex test technologies, expanding at home and point-of-care test offerings, forming partnership with healthcare providers and governments, securing regulatory approval quickly and strengthening the global distribution network-in special emergence markets. About Author: Prophecy is a specialized market research, analytics, marketing and business strategy, and solutions company that offer strategic and tactical support to clients for making well-informed business decisions and to identify and achieve high value opportunities in the target business area. Also, we help our client to address business challenges and provide best possible solutions to overcome them and transform their business. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Meet the Oropouche virus. It may be visiting your city soon.
Oropouche virus disease was a relatively rare illness for decades, lurking on the margins of tropical rainforests in the Caribbean and South America. Sporadic reports of an infection causing fevers, coughs, chills, and body aches emerged among people living near or moving into the jungle. A tiny insect called a midge spreads the disease, and the earliest known case dates back to 1955 in a forest worker near a village called Vega de Oropouche in Trinidad. Since most people who were infected with the virus recovered on their own and since cases were so infrequent, it barely registered as a public health concern. But a few years ago, something changed. A major Oropouche fever outbreak beginning in 2023 infected at least 23,000 people across Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Peru. It wasn't just confined to remote wilderness areas but was spreading in metropolises like Rio de Janeiro. In some cases, travelers were infected and then brought the virus home: So far, Oropouche fever has sprung up in the US, Canada, and Europe in people returning from the afflicted region. The outbreak has killed at least five people. The sudden rise of Oropouche disease startled scientists and health officials. Since its discovery, there have only been around 500,000 known cases. By contrast, there are upward of 400 million dengue infections each year. It's likely then that many more Oropouche infections have gone undetected, especially since its symptoms overlap with those from other diseases and there's little active screening for the virus. What Oropouche fever is, how you can identify it, and what spreads the disease. What researchers know about the startling outbreak across South American in 2023 and 2024. The threat the disease's spread poses to the United States. Now, researchers are looking back at the outbreak to try to find out what they missed and what lessons they can apply to get ahead of future epidemics. Oropouche virus is a critical case study in the complicated factors that drive vector-borne diseases. Dynamics like deforestation, urban sprawl, international travel, and gaps in surveillance are converging to drive up the dangers from infections spread by animals. And as the climate changes, new regions are becoming more hospitable to the blood suckers that spread these diseases, increasing the chances of these seemingly-remote infections making it to the US and getting established. That means more people will face threats from illnesses that they may never have considered before. 'It's very likely that these public health problems that people before called 'tropical disease' are not so tropical anymore and are basically everywhere,' said William de Souza, who studies arboviruses — viruses spread by arthropods like insects — at the University of Kentucky. 'Vector-borne disease is not a local problem; this is a global problem.' The rising specter of Oropouche fever comes at a time when the United States is cutting funding for research at universities, pulling back from studying vector-borne disease threats, and ending collaborations with other countries to limit their risk. The Oropouche virus belongs to the family of bunyaviruses. They appear as spheres under a microscope, and they encode their genomes in RNA, rather than DNA as human cells do. RNA viruses tend to have high mutation rates, making it harder to target them with vaccines and increasing the odds of reinfection. Oropuche's relatives include the viruses behind Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, spread by ticks, and Rift Valley fever, spread by mosquitoes. 'Vector-borne disease is not a local problem; this is a global problem.' William de souza Oropouche spreads mainly through the bites of a 1- to 3-millimeter-long insect called, appropriately, a biting midge (Culicoides paraensis). Midges are sometimes called sand flies or no-see-ums in the US, and they breed in damp soil, rotting vegetation, and standing water. Like mosquitoes, they feed on blood to drive their reproduction, but their minuscule bodies can easily slip through mosquito nets. When a midge bites an infected host, it can pass on the pathogen to a human during a subsequent bite. There's also evidence that the virus may be sexually transmissible, but no such cases have been documented yet. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that male travelers from regions where Oropouche is spreading should not have sex for six weeks if they show symptoms of the disease. Vector-borne diseases like Oropouche continue to surprise us because there are so many variables that have to align in order to spread them — the pathogens, the vectors, the hosts, and the environment. Unlike diseases like Covid-19 or influenza, vector-borne illnesses don't spread directly from person to person. Instead, they require an animal, often arthropods like ticks, midges, and mosquitoes. The range, reproduction, and behavior of these organisms add another confounding factor in the spread of the diseases they carry. Globally, vector-borne diseases account for 17 percent of infectious diseases, leading to more than 700,000 deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization. But not every part of the world is equally vulnerable. In cooler regions, vector-borne infections are often a minor public health concern, but in countries like Brazil, 'it's at the top,' said Tatiane Moraes de Sousa, a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro. 'Oropouche before 2024 was concentrated just in the Amazon. Last year, we saw the spreading of Oropuche in almost all Brazilian states.' That gets to the first obstacle in tracking Oropouche: Which animals are the reservoirs for the virus and where are they? So far, researchers have detected the virus in animals including sloths, capuchin monkeys, marmosets, domestic birds, and rodents. These organisms form what's known as the sylvatic, or forest, cycle of the virus. How the virus jumps between all these animals and which ones are most concerning for people is not known. Additionally, it may be possible that other insects may be able to carry the Oropouche virus, but it's not clear whether they can spread it to humans. The pattern that does emerge is that when people spend more time inside and around the fringes of tropical rainforests, where the animals that harbor the virus and the insects that spread them reside, they're more likely to get infected. With deforestation and development, more people are moving into areas where the disease naturally spreads. 'This is a classical example of how human behavior can lead to the emergence of a pathogen,' said Natasha Tilston, who studies Oropouche virus at the Indiana University School of Medicine. People can travel great distances, and as people move back and forth from the wilderness to cities, they can unwittingly carry viruses like Oropouche. If enough of them gather in cities where vectors are present, they can trigger an urban epidemic cycle as the virus travels from person to midge to person. This was likely the pattern in the 2023–2024 outbreak in major cities in South America. It's also true that more health workers were on guard for Oropouche and thus identified more infections. 'The outbreak is probably a combination of one, there are more cases, and two, we're also looking for a lot more than we did before,' Tilston said, noting that some past outbreaks of dengue may have actually been Oropouche as well. One factor is that the virus likely evolved. Viruses mutate all the time, and most mutations are either inconsequential or detrimental to the virus, slowing or stopping its reproduction. But occasionally, a change can confer an advantage or make the pathogen more destructive. The Oropouche virus has a genome structure that makes it even more prone to a type of mutation called reassortment. 'Reassortment is when you have two similar viruses infect the same cell and they mix genomes,' explained University of Kentucky's de Souza. 'People previously infected by the old virus are now susceptible to new infection. This could help explain why the Amazon region, where this has been circulated for a long time, saw this emerge, because people were probably reinfected.' The strain behind the outbreak appears to reproduce faster and cause more severe illness than prior varieties as well. Part of the reason this outbreak racked up so many infected people is that health officials were starting to deploy the tools to identify on a wider scale. Particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, more health departments across the region built up their tools to detect viruses. But researchers still aren't sure exactly what spurred the virus to spread so suddenly across so many countries. Travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic started relaxing in 2023 and made it easier for people to move back and forth from the rural areas where the virus is endemic to the cities where it became established. The 2023–2024 outbreak also coincided with a powerful El Niño event that brought gargantuan amounts of rain and triggered unprecedented flooding across many parts of South America. These were also years that set new temperature records. Higher temperatures can speed up the reproduction of the virus inside midges. But scientists aren't exactly sure how this heat and water affected the vectors, though Brazil has seen outbreaks of other infectious diseases in the aftermath of floods. 'El Niño and other climate phenomena have been associated with the change of the patterns of many different vector-borne diseases,' de Souza said. 'For Oropouche specifically, we don't have the answers yet, but the likelihood of impact is very high.' On top of all this, there aren't any specific ways to keep an outbreak in check once it ignites. There are no vaccines or treatments for Oropouche fever yet. So when all the factors align to spread the disease, there isn't much people can do to target the disease, and when it reaches a new area, there aren't as many people with immunity and few health workers who know what they're dealing with. Fortunately, the Oropouche outbreak has died down, but a variety of infections are gaining a toehold in new places as infected people travel and as vectors move into new habitats, and the US is increasingly vulnerable. According to the CDC, the number of vector-borne disease cases per year has doubled in the US since 2001. Last year, the US saw transmission of mosquito-borne diseases like Eastern equine encephalitis and West Nile virus. Malaria, a disease once eradicated across the country, saw the first local infections in 20 years in 2023 in Florida and Texas. Vectors like the Asian tiger mosquito are spreading further north as the climate changes and expands favorable conditions for its survival. With travelers moving back and forth from regions where diseases are endemic, many will unwittingly bring back dangerous souvenirs, whether a stowaway insect in their luggage or an infection in their blood. And with midges, mosquitoes, and ticks spreading to new regions, dangerous pathogens are extending their reach. There are ways to slow the spread of these diseases, however, and the US has managed to do so before. The US famously launched a successful campaign to eradicate malaria within its borders. The first step is to simply acknowledge the threat. As Oropouche showed, there may be diseases lurking closer than we realized that we simply haven't bothered to look for. It's fairly simple to do things like dump standing water where insects can breed or spray insecticides on midge breeding grounds. But some places are getting creative, working to build up habitats for fish, bats, birds, and dragonflies that are natural predators of mosquitoes and midges to limit their spread. Limiting the destruction and development in wilderness areas can reduce the likelihood of diseases spilling over from animals into humans. Some regions are looking at even more drastic ways to stymie vectors. One measure that's gaining traction is deploying sterile male mosquitoes. When they mate, they produce eggs that won't hatch, thus reducing the population of the insect. Brazil recently inaugurated a factory that breeds mosquitoes to carry a bacterium known as Wolbachia that prevents the mosquitoes from reproducing easily, slowing the viruses that cause dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, a disease that can cause fever and joint pain, now established in the Americas. Hawaii is using these mosquitoes to arrest the spread of avian malaria. Vaccines and treatments are critical tools for addressing the diseases directly. Many pathogens can be controlled with these measures, but because they more commonly spread in poorer countries, there is less investment in containing them. Many vector-borne diseases like Oropouche are considered 'neglected,' and so when they do spread beyond their typical range, there isn't much available to help those who get sick. But the growing burden of these diseases demands a new generation of tools that can target multiple threats. 'We are seeing so many outbreaks that we need broad vaccines,' said Fiocruz's Sousa. Additionally, vector-borne diseases aren't each waiting for their turns. Countries can have multiple outbreaks at the same time on top of all the other health concerns that emerge during severe weather like extreme heat or the health care disruptions in the wake of a disaster like a major storm. 'We are seeing cumulative threats because we are seeing not just one vector-borne disease,' Sousa said. 'In a lot of scenarios, we are also maintaining high levels of communicable diseases.' Right now, some health departments are being proactive, keeping an eye out for sick travelers, collecting mosquitoes in the wild to see what kinds of germs they're carrying, and coordinating with researchers across the country. 'We've been having biweekly meetings with CDC to talk about the potential for Oropouche coming into the US and spreading,' said Bethany Bolling, zoonotic virology group manager at the Texas Department of State Health Services. 'We've seen in the past that Florida and Texas are some of the primary areas where these new viruses start to establish, so in Texas, we're trying to be aware of Oropouche and what the vectors are.' For the US, Brazil's experience with Oropouche is an important lesson that could help health officials prepare and counter the disease when it inevitably arrives. 'There is a real threat to the United States,' Tilston said. 'I think we have all the right settings, and I think it's just a matter of everything being in the right place at the right time. With climate change, it's just really a matter of when it's going to happen.'
Medscape
19-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Why Is Oropouche Spreading so Fast?
Robert D. Glatter, MD Oropouche virus (OROV) cases surged significantly in 2024 and early 2025, with almost 20,000 confirmed infections reported across Latin America and the Caribbean, including four deaths. The highest burden was observed in Brazil, followed by Peru and Cuba. This sudden spike has captured the attention of public health officials. What set the stage for its resurgence and rapid geographic spread? Having followed arboviral outbreaks closely over the past few years, this sudden rise is concerning, not just for its scale but for its silence. Like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, OROV is transmitted through the bite of infected arthropods, navigating a complex web of vectors, vertebrate hosts, and increasingly permissive environments. What makes OROV especially insidious is its dual-cycle transmission: an urban cycle dominated by Culicoides paraensis midges and a sylvatic cycle involving mosquitoes like Aedes serratus and Culex quinquefasciatus . First identified in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1950s and isolated in Brazil in 1960, OROV has since spread across the Amazon and other parts of Central and South America, with outbreaks driven by environmental changes, deforestation, urbanization, and human mobility. From a clinical standpoint, OROV presents much like dengue or chikungunya: fever, headache, muscle pain, and rash. But around 40% of those infected show no symptoms at all, which further complicates surveillance. And while most symptomatic cases resolve within 2 weeks, severe neurological complications, such as meningitis and encephalitis, are rare but possible. That alone should keep public health officials alert. A Developing Story In February 2024, Rio de Janeiro confirmed its first case of Oropouche fever in a man who had returned from the Brazilian state of Amazonas, signaling the virus's expansion beyond its traditional hotspots in Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia. Simultaneously, Brazil faced a severe dengue epidemic, surpassing one million cases in the first 2 months of 2024. The overlapping symptoms between Oropouche fever and other arboviruses suggest a significant underdiagnosis of Oropouche cases, creating a major challenge for the health system. In July 2024, Brazil reported the world's first deaths from OROV, involving two previously healthy women from the state of Bahia, highlighting the severity of the disease and the urgent need for enhanced surveillance and public health responses. In 2024, the highest burden of OROV infections was observed in Brazil (13,785 cases and all four deaths), Peru (1263), and Cuba (626). In early 2025 (epidemiological weeks 1-4), an additional 3765 confirmed cases were reported, predominantly in Brazil (3678), with smaller numbers in Panama (79), Cuba (4), Peru (2), and isolated imported cases in Canada, the United States, and Guyana. Since the last update in December 2024, 6990 new cases have been registered. Notably, Brazil also reported cases of possible vertical transmission in 2024, with five confirmed outcomes (four fetal deaths and one congenital anomaly), and several other fetal and neonatal outcomes remain under investigation. In the United States, OROV cases surged in 2024, with 108 imported cases , predominantly in Florida. However, as of early 2025, only 14 additional cases were reported, reflecting either a decline in travel-related exposure or potential underdiagnosis. Imported cases were also detected in Canada (2 cases) and several European countries (30 cases), all linked to travel from endemic regions. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cases in the country have followed a travel-related pattern. While the absence of local transmission is reassuring, the presence of competent vectors such as C paraensis in several southern US states raises concerns about the potential for future outbreaks. The CDC emphasizes the importance of early detection, clinical awareness, and vector surveillance to prevent local establishment of the virus. Why Now? Julia Sader Neves Ferreira, MD The rapid expansion of OROV is attributed to multiple interconnected factors. Climate change has played a significant role, as rising global temperatures, increased rainfall, and shifting humidity levels have created optimal breeding conditions for midges and mosquitoes, the primary vectors of the virus. Warmer climates accelerate the lifecycle of these arthropods, prolonging their activity and expanding their geographical range, which has contributed to the virus's emergence in non-endemic regions such as the Caribbean and southern United States. Deforestation and urbanization have further intensified the spread of OROV. The destruction of tropical forests in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru has brought human populations into closer contact with sylvatic virus reservoirs, including non-human primates and sloths, which serve as intermediate hosts. Simultaneously, unplanned urban expansion in Latin America has led to an increase in artificial water reservoirs, providing ideal breeding grounds for disease-carrying vectors. As rural populations migrate to urban centers, the risk of sustained human-to-human transmission in densely populated areas continues to rise. Another key factor is the increase in human mobility and globalization, which has significantly facilitated the spread of OROV beyond its historically endemic areas. Imported cases in the United States, Canada, and Europe demonstrate how infected travelers inadvertently carry the virus to non-endemic regions, increasing the likelihood of localized outbreaks. Furthermore, recent studies indicate that OROV RNA can persist in semen for up to 58 days, raising concerns over potential sexual transmission. While no confirmed cases of sexually transmitted OROV have been documented, the persistence of viral RNA in bodily fluids mirrors patterns seen in other arboviruses, such as Zika. This suggests that sexual transmission could play a role in maintaining OROV circulation outside vector-driven outbreaks, particularly in urban settings where direct human-to-human transmission may become a contributing factor. As OROV continues its rapid spread, the likelihood of its establishment in new regions, sustained transmission, and potential adaptation to different vectors poses an increasing concern. The overlapping impact of climate change, deforestation, urbanization, and human migration has accelerated the virus's expansion at an unprecedented rate. With the first confirmed deaths reported in 2024 and the continued increase in cases in 2025, urgent global interventions are required, including enhanced vector control strategies, improved diagnostic capabilities, and further research into sexual transmission and vaccine development. Is Vaccination a Possibility? Researchers are employing advanced techniques to identify viral components that can stimulate the immune system, paving the way for potential vaccines. Several approaches are under investigation, including live attenuated vaccines, chemically inactivated vaccines, DNA-based vaccines, and protein-subunit vaccines. A promising candidate is a live attenuated vaccine derived from the weakened OROV strain, BeAn19991, which has shown positive results in animal studies and demonstrated safety and efficacy in a phase I trial with healthy volunteers, eliciting a strong immune response without serious side effects. Another innovative approach involves a vaccine utilizing a modified vesicular stomatitis virus to deliver OROV proteins. This vaccine has protected mice from the virus, indicating potential for human application. Advancements in reverse genetics are also anticipated to significantly aid vaccine development by enabling scientists to modify the virus's genetic material to create vaccines that elicit robust and targeted immune responses. Researchers are experimenting with various genetic modifications to attenuate the virus while maintaining its effectiveness as a vaccine. Insights from vaccine development for related viruses, such as Schmallenberg virus (SBV), Aino virus, and Akabane virus, are informing OROV vaccine research. These veterinary vaccines have successfully reduced or prevented infections in animals. For instance, a bivalent vaccine combining proteins from both SBV and Akabane virus has conferred protection in cattle. Additionally, DNA-based vaccines for these viruses have safeguarded mice by preventing weight loss and reducing viral levels in the blood. These cross-species insights offer hope — but human application is still a work in progress. Developing a vaccine for OROV presents challenges due to the virus's genetic diversity and the necessity for broad protection against multiple strains. Although no licensed vaccines for OROV currently exist, ongoing research and clinical trials provide a promising foundation for the future prevention of Oropouche fever. With no licensed vaccine available yet, we're left with traditional control measures: vector surveillance, environmental interventions, and public awareness. Governments must invest not just in emergency response, but in research, innovation, and early detection systems. Community education and personal protection — window screens, repellents, long sleeves — remain frontline defenses, especially for those living in or traveling to high-risk areas. WHO Global Initiative for Arboviral Diseases In response to the escalating threat of arboviral diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Arbovirus Initiative on March 31, 2022. This initiative aims to monitor and control diseases caused by arthropod-borne viruses, such as dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and yellow fever, by implementing an integrated approach across various sectors and disciplines. The initiative focuses on six key pillars: monitoring risk and anticipating epidemics, reducing local epidemic risks, strengthening vector control, preparing for pandemics, enhancing innovation in diagnostics and treatments, and building a coalition of partners. Building upon this foundation, the WHO introduced the Global Strategic Preparedness, Readiness, and Response Plan in October 2024 to specifically target dengue and other Aedes-borne arboviruses. This plan outlines priority actions for countries to control transmission, emphasizing areas such as disease surveillance, laboratory activities, vector control, community engagement, clinical management, and research and development. The plan is designed to be implemented over 1 year, concluding in September 2025, and requires an estimated US $55 million to support health preparedness and response efforts. This plan aligns with existing strategies, including the Global Vector Control Response 2017-2030 and the Global Arbovirus Initiative. Factors such as unplanned urbanization, climate change, and increased international travel have contributed to the rapid geographical spread of these diseases, making a unified and comprehensive approach essential. Through these concerted efforts, the WHO aims to reduce the burden of arboviral diseases worldwide by enhancing surveillance, improving vector control, promoting research and innovation, and strengthening partnerships across sectors and regions. "The next pandemic could very likely be due to a new arbovirus, and we already have some signals that the risk is increasing," said Sylvie Briand, WHO director of pandemic and epidemic diseases. "Since 2016, more than 89 countries have faced epidemics due to the Zika virus. Given human mobility and urbanization, the risk of amplifying localized arbovirus outbreaks is real."
