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This Tropical Virus Is Spreading Out of the Amazon to the US and Europe
Oropouche virus has posed little threat outside South America in the past, but land-use change, the climate crisis, and international travel all appear to be spreading this insect-borne disease to new places.
“We have some pieces of the puzzle, but there is no total certainty as to what role each one plays,” says Juan Carlos Navarro, director of research at SEK International University, where he heads the emerging diseases and epidemiology group. Navarro points out that human interference in nature seemingly driving disease outbreaks is not unique to Oropouche; years ago, the work of his colleague María Eugenia Grillet showed how the expansion of mining and deforestation reactivated malaria in Venezuela. Navarro points out that countries also still need to work together to create rapid diagnostics, properly investigate the role of vectors in jungle, rural, and urban areas, as well as fully understand the transmission cycle.
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