**2.2 Oropouche (OROV)**

In Peru, there is limited detection of OROV, an orthobunyavirus. But in 2016, at least in three districts of Madre de Dios (2) and Cusco (1), OROV outbreaks were detected (Tambopata, Iñapari, and Ocobamba).

OROV is another neglected arbovirus [54]. OROV is a species in the genus orthobunyavirus, the family Peribunyaviridae (**Figure 5**). That genus includes 103 species, but only OROV is considered of medical importance in Latin America. More relevant in North America, this genus contains the La Cross virus (LACV), which has not yet been identified in Latin America [55].

In another bibliometric study performed in June 2015 [54], only 83 articles were recovered from PubMed (43% from Brazil, 18% from the United States of America, and 6% from Peru) [54]. On May 2016, the Ministry of Health of Peru reported 57 cases of OROV [54]. Cases of OROV have also been reported in nearby countries, such as Panama, Ecuador, French Guiana, Haiti, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, and Venezuela [56–60]. As occurs with MAYV, OROV is under surveillance in Peru but not in most countries of Latin America. After 7 years of the unique bibliometric assessment of OROV so far [54], only 95 additional articles have been published, showing clearly the lack of research on this orthobunyavirus.

Nevertheless, recent studies (2021–2022) in Colombia have identified OROV as an emerging cause of acute febrile illness in the country [61]. In a study with 2,967 individuals, OROV was identified in 87 of 791 (10.9%) viremic cases, where an RT-qPCR dual-target assay was possible. Those cases were from Cali (the third largest city in the country) (3/53), Cucuta (border with Venezuela) (3/19), Villavicencio (easter lowlands) (38/566), and Leticia (Amazon jungle) (43/153). In parallel, an automated anti-nucleocapsid antibody assay detected IgM in 27/503 (5.4%) and IgG in 92/568 (16.2%) patients screened, for which 24/68 (35.3%) of PCR positives had antibodies [61]. Such findings confirm OROV as an emerging pathogen and recommend increased surveillance to determine its burden as a cause of acute febrile illness in Colombia [61]. A previous assessment in Colombia diagnosed OROV in a woman 28 years of age from Turbaco, Bolivar department (near Cartagena), by viral isolation, quantitative reverse transcription PCR, and phylogenetic analysis of the small,


**Table 1.** *Cases of MAYV in Peru, 2017–2020.*
