With symptoms and transmission similar to dengue fever, Oropouche fever has put Amazonas on alert in 2024. According to the Health Surveillance Foundation (FVS-AM), from 1 January until Thursday (22), the state registered 1,398 confirmed cases of the disease, three times the number registered last year, when 445 cases were recorded. The scenario is even more worrying when compared to the national statistics. In 2023, Brazil recorded 773 cases, 99 per cent of which occurred in the northern region, according to the Ministry of Health. According to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the Culicoides paraense mosquito, popularly known as maruim or mêruim, is the main transmitter of the virus that can cause the disease. It is 20 times smaller than the aedes aegypti, the transmitter of dengue, zika and chikungunya. In Brazil, Oropouche is considered one of the most important arboviruses (viruses transmitted by mosquito bites) that infect humans in the Amazon region. The FVS-AM explained that the identification of confirmed cases of Oropouche fever is based on a diagnosis made by testing notified patients with negative results for dengue. At the beginning of February this year, the Manaus Municipal Health Department (Semsa) confirmed the first death from the disease in the capital. The victim was a 15-year-old teenager who, according to the agency, had a case of co-infection, as she also had Covid-19. The double infection was confirmed in laboratory tests. At the beginning of February, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) issued an epidemiological alert about an increase in Oropouche in the Americas.

Source: Amazon Agency