Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
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Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr Norbert Herzog.
And I’m Dr. David Niesel
Most likely, you’ve never heard of the sloth virus. It’s also called the Oropouche Virus, and more than twenty cases were recently found for the first time in the US. All of them had traveled to Cuba.
The virus normally circulates in parts of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Europe also got its first cases after people traveled to the Americas this summer.
Oropouche virus was first identified in a feverish forest worker in Trinidad and Tobago in an area called Vega de Oropouche in nineteen-fifty-five.
The name Sloth virus came from scientists who proposed that the main animal host of the virus is the pale-throated sloth.
Some also now believe other animals such as wild birds carry the virus and direct human-to-human transmission has not been reported.
Symptoms usually begin three to ten days after being bitten by an insect carrying the virus. There’s fever, headaches, and chills and some suffer nausea and vomiting.
Less than half a percent get severe disease including meningitis which is infection and inflammation of membranes around the spinal cord and brain. Death is rare and most people recover in a week. The biggest danger is to pregnant women because the fetus could die or suffer abnormalities.
In 2024, outbreaks were reported in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia., Peru, and for the first time in Cuba. Climate change will likely cause further spread of Oropouche virus and the insects that carry it.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
