PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Trinidad and Tobago health authorities Tuesday confirmed that tests are being done to detect whether or not people here are suffering from the Oropouche virus (OROV).
The Pan American health Organization (PAHO) has issued an epidemiological alert calling on countries to strengthen surveillance and implementation of laboratory diagnosis of the OROV that got its name after it was first detected in 1955 in a febrile forest worker in a village in Trinidad and Tobago.
PAHO made the call following a recent increase in cases, and spread of the disease to new areas, as well as reports of the first deaths associated with the infection and possible instances of vertical transmission.
Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh, speaking at a news conference here said that the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is conducting the tests locally.
“I have confirmed with CARPHA this morning that we are now testing for the Oropouche virus in case we have it in Trinidad and Tobago,” Deyalsingh told reporters.
“What CARPHA is doing, the blood samples that we send to them to test for dengue, once those samples are negative, then they do a second screen for Oropouche virus because the signs and symptoms tend to be the same and they overlap.
‘So we want to know whether we are dealing with Oropouche virus at the same time,” Deyalsingh said, adding that there has been no positive case of the OROV.
Symptoms of the virus include sudden onset of fever, severe headache, joint and muscle pain, and, in some cases, rash, photophobia, diplopia (double vision), nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms may last five to seven days. While most cases recover without sequelae, in a small number of instances, complete recovery may take several weeks. Rarely, severe cases with aseptic meningitis may occur.
As of the end of July, in 2024, 8,078 confirmed cases of Oropouche fever were reported in the region, including two deaths. Cases were reported in five countries: Bolivia (356), Brazil (7,284, including two deaths), Colombia (74s), Cuba (74) and Peru (290).
But Deyalsingh said that the number of laboratory confirmed cases of dengue had increase by over 100 casses over a two week period, totalling813 up from the previous 712.
He said that the number of deaths remain at eight and that the public health inspectors have sent more than 400 notices to people who continue to have within their homes plants receptacles for plants that are provided with water.
“So 441 house owners have been served notices to clean their premises to get rid of breeding sites,” he said, noting that the health authorities had indicated three weeks ago that they had visited an estimated 150,000 homes.
“To date that figure is now 160, 726 homes have been visited personally . That is to give you some idea of the scope and range of the response that we are mounting,” Deyalsingh said.
But he said members of the public can do more to rid homes of nesting sites for mosquitoes.
“The population has still not in my view started to play their part in ridding their homes and their yards of breeding sites and that’s why we had to issue 441 notices and that is a drop in the bucket.
“The population needs to do much much more, and I want to reiterate that plant life is not as important as human life. Too many people are telling me, well what to do with my plants, I have to water my plants, I need to have a vase inside my house.
But Deyalsingh said there is no need to have a vase inside the house especially if the person does not change the water in the vase every week and scrub inside to dislodge all the eggs of the mosquitoes.
