Oropouche fever at the Pita Health Post, Ecuador. Case report

Abstract

Oropouche virus infection is a metaxenic disease endemic to South America and the Caribbean. Oropouche virus is an arbovirus of the Simbu serogroup, of the Orthobunyavirus genus, whose main vectors are the Culicoides paraensis and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes, which have a high semi-urban geographic distribution during hot and rainy climates. We present the case of a 62-year-old male patient who goes to the Pita health post with a 3-day clinical picture characterized by fever, malaise, myalgia, arthralgia and moderate headache; doctors suspect Dengue without warning signs, after which laboratory tests are performed with negative results for Dengue and positive for Oropouche virus using the RT-qPCR technique; therefore, his diagnosis is accidental. Due to the lack of study of Oropouche fever in medical schools and the absence of reporting of this infection in the weekly vector gazettes in our country, the objective of this article is to describe the clinic, diagnosis and management of the infection, as well as to propose to the first level health care professional to carry out the epidemiological notification with the diagnosis ICD 10: "A928 - Other specified mosquito-borne viral fevers", so that validated laboratories at national levels sequence other viruses using the RT-qPCR technique and in this way identify other possible tropical diseases other than Dengue for their monitoring, notification and establishment of the respective epidemiological fences.