Suspected vertical transmission of Oropouche virus in pregnancy
The Pan American Health Organizartion (PAHO) has issued an epidemiological alert describing possible cases of vertical Oropouche virus transmission (from mother to fetus) in Brazil. The alert describes two recent cases of suspected vertical transmission in pregnancy, one of which ended in intrauterine fetal death, the second in early pregnancy miscarriage. The alert also describes a small number of historical reports which detail infections occurring in pregnancy which ended in miscarriage, and four cases of neonates born with microcephaly who tested negative for dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and West Nile virus, who had antibodies against Oropouche virus in either serum samples or cerebrospinal fluid. The emerging data does not yet allow for a formal causal relationship to be defined between intrauterine Oropouche virus exposure and these adverse outcomes, but caution is warranted.
For full details of the alert, please see the PAHO website.
About Oropouche virus
Oropouche orthobunyavirus (OROV) is an arbovirus of the Bunyaviridae family. It is a segmented single-stranded RNA virus that is part of the genus Orthobunyavirus of the Peribunyaviridae family. The virus has been found to circulate in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It can be transmitted to humans primarily through the bite of the Culicoides paraensis midge, found in forested areas and around water bodies, or certain Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitos.
Disease symptoms are similar to dengue and start between four to eight days (range between three-12 days) after the infective bite. The onset is sudden, usually with fever, headache, joint stiffness, pain, chills, and sometimes persistent nausea and vomiting, for up to five to seven days.
The WHO state that there is a risk of the disease spreading internationally given the virus can be found in areas which are popular international tourist destinations and the putative vector is widely distributed in the Americas region.
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