What Is Sloth Fever? Here’s What to Know About the Potentially Deadly Virus Spreading to the United States !
A potentially deadly virus that has become known as “sloth fever” has made its way to the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to raise an alarm.
The Oropouche virus, which is usually confined to reports about illness in South America, Central America and the Caribbean, is primarily spread through the bite of infected midges, which are small, biting insects. Mosquitoes are also carriers of the virus.
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It is often referred to as “sloth virus” or “sloth fever” because sloths are among the animals infected regularly. As The Lancet, the journal of medicine, emphasizes, the virus has its reservoir in pale-throated sloths, non-human primates, and birds.
The term ‘sloth fever’ is a colloquial name that has developed because the virus was identified in regions populated by sloths, which are known to carry all sorts of parasites and pathogens,” explained Carolina Goncalves, superintendent pharmacist at Pharmica, per the Independent. “Yet the name is a little misleading, as it’s spread by insect bites rather than direct contact with sloths.
The Oropouche virus, originally endemic in parts of South America, was first reported in 1955 from Trinidad and Tobago, but there have been tens of thousands of cases last year itself, and the infection also extended outside its believed natural endemic foci of the Amazon basin area.
Florida reported 20 travel-related cases of the Oropouche virus, including nine reported from last week. There were over 8,000 confirmed cases between January 1 and August 1 this year, compared to 832 confirmed cases in 2023.
Of these, two deaths also in Brazil were confirmed. Five cases with transmission related to cases of fetal death or birth defects were considered.
The CDC released a health advisory of the potential for the spread from mother to fetus during the pregnancy period.
Symptoms will appear in a third of the people infected with the virus. They will vary from mild fever, photosensitivity, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, severe headache, pains in joints and muscles, chills or a skin rash. Rare but all the same serious symptoms include severer abdominal pain, hemorrhagic symptoms and even meningitis. Meningitis causes inflammation of the brain and the spinal cord. Though death is rare, it is possible when symptoms turn severe.
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Symptoms, in most, last for less than a week, but occurred days or even weeks later again.
There are no medicines to treat the Oropouche virus or prevent infection. Health experts say the best defense is just preventing bites from midges and mosquitoes using insect repellent or using door and window screens.
Pregnant persons are advised by the CDC to avoid non-essential travel to the area of infection, which includes Cuba and Brazil.
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