Isolation of the Oropouche virus
Aislamiento del virus Oropouche
- Date
- 1955 · confidence high
- Place
- Vega de Oropouche, Sangre Grande, Trinidad and Tobago
- Credited to
- Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory (Rockefeller Foundation)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Isolated in 1955 from the blood of a febrile forest worker in Trinidad, the Oropouche virus is an arbovirus transmitted by Culicoides midges that causes febrile outbreaks in Amazonia and the Caribbean. It showed that the region harboured many emerging viruses yet to be discovered.
The formal description of the virus was published in 1961 (Anderson and colleagues). The precise location of Vega de Oropouche is approximate; it is placed in the Sangre Grande area.
What it led to
- surveillance of emerging arboviruses in tropical America
- outbreaks in Brazil, Peru, Cuba and elsewhere, including those of 2024
- the Rockefeller Foundation's network of virus laboratories