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Congratulations for being a sane, conspiracy-free person and reading beyond the headline before running off to PicknPay to stockpile toilet paper in anticipation of the next big sick.

We’ve all been here before, so it makes sense that there would be some anxiety after news of the first “Sloth Virus” case to emerge from Europe. Fortunately, the most recent “horror virus from the jungle” has shown no signs of spreading between humans.

From the same family of diseases as the Zika virus and Dengue Fever, the virus originates in sloths – hence the nickname – and is mainly spread by insect bites, including mosquitoes.

Spain, Italy and Germany all reported infections in patients who had recently travelled to Cuba and Brazil where the tropical bug, called Oropouche virus (OROV) is circulating. Twelve cases were reported in Spain, five in Italy, and two in Germany, according to the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC).

Oropouche virus can cause symptoms similar to Zika, including sudden fever, muscle aches, light sensitivity, eye pain, vomiting and rash, chills, headaches and stiff joints.

In roughly 4% of cases, the virus can infect the nervous system, causing inflammation around the spinal cord and brain or within the brain. Severe cases may result in meningitis, a brain swelling disease.

There are currently no vaccines to treat the virus, but authorities don’t seem to be too concerned about it, issuing only a ‘moderate’ warning to travellers visiting Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Cuba.

While the authorities in these countries seem to be avoiding a public health scare, European experts are understandably freaking out a bit, with British media already using words like ‘terrifying’ and ‘outbreaks’.

Dr Danny Altmann, a professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph, “We should definitely be worried. Things are changing and may become unstoppable.”

Although the cases remain low in Europe, between January and mid-July this year more than 8,000 cases have been recorded in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia and Cuba. Travellers to these countries have been urged to wear insect repellent and long-sleeved shirts and trousers to reduce the risk of bites.

Part of the reason South America is keeping a cool head is that the virus is not new to the jungles of this continent. The strain behind the recent outbreak was first spotted in a tiny village in Trinidad and Tobago back in 1955.

Five years later, during the construction of the Belem-Brasilia highway, a sloth was tested as carrying Oropouche. Within a year people in the area became ill with the virus and there have been around 30 outbreaks, all centred in the Amazon basin since then.

It’s unclear which insects spread the virus in the jungle, where it circulates between sloths, birds and primates, but in urban areas midges and mosquitos are believed to spread the disease among humans.

Since everyone still feels the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is reasonable to feel apprehensive whenever a headline mentions a “new virus”. In truth, these viruses have been around for a while, and since we now have far better tracking and diagnostic tools, we are more equipped than before.

 

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We’ll be fine. Get some Tabbard if you’re planning a ‘shopping trip’ to Colombia and don’t freak your family out by stockpiling bleach. Health officials say the prognosis for recovery from the “Sloth Virus” is good and fatal outcomes are rare.

The same can’t always be said for panicked runs to the mall.