Study in Latin America
Oropouche virus further spread than expected
Updated on April 15th, 2025 – 4:00 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Headache and body aches, shaking frost: Individual cases of oropouche fever also existed in Germany: for returnees from Latin America. There the virus is much more widespread than known.
The Oropouche virus is much more common in Latin America than previously assumed. In a study from Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru, an international team of researchers found antibodies against the pathogen in 6.3 percent of more than 9,400 blood samples. Thus, at least every 16th person had this infection in life, explained co-author Jan Felix Drexler.
The head of the Virusepidemiology working group at the Berlin Charité assumes that more than 6.3 percent of the population already had contact with the virus. “We don’t know how long the antibodies last.”
In addition, there were strong regional differences, as the team in the specialist journal “The Lancet Infectious Diseases” writes: While in Costa Rica about 2 percent of the rehearsals had antibodies against the pathogen, it was 5 percent in Ecuador and more than 10 percent in the Amazon areas. The blood samples came from 2001 to 2022.
The symptoms of the Oropouche virus (Orov) resemble those of dengue or chikungunya fever: head, muscle and joint pain, nausea and diarrhea, sometimes also rashes. In rare cases, there are severe courses. There is also indications of possible damage unborn children. So far there is no specific treatment or vaccination.
The virus known since the 1950s is transmitted in Latin America by various mosquito species. For a long time, only a few cases were reported a year because little was tested. Since the end of 2023, the number of infections has increased to more than 20,000 cases per year. The reasons for this are unclear.
The researchers around Drexler believe that climate factors such as rain and temperature have great influence. The strong rainfall last year in parts of South America could have contributed to larger mosquito populations and thus to the spread of the virus.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), travelers to the region should consistently protect themselves from stings – for example through long clothing, insect defense and a particularly fine -mesh mosquito net. According to RKI, pregnant women should do without outbreak areas. The Federal Foreign Office also recommends pregnant women to critically weigh the need for a trip.
According to RKI, four cases of oropouche fever have been reported so far: three in 2024, one this year. All those affected are travelers from Central and South America. The virus in this country has not yet been observed.
