Confronting Oropouche: a new stage for Cuban science

Havana, Sep 25.- The need to obtain a rapid test for the diagnosis of oropouche, a task being undertaken by the Inmmunoassays Center, and the feasibility or otherwise of obtaining a vaccine for the prevention of the disease, a mission assumed by the Finlay Institute, These were the topics discussed at the most recent meeting of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, with scientists and experts on health issues.

The President led an exchange in which a wide representation of Cuban research centres and medical institutions participated, and attended by the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and the deputy prime ministers, Inés María Chapman Waugh and Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella.

After the presentations and debate, which were moderated by Dr José Ángel Portal Miranda, head of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), Dr Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation in that portfolio, told the Presidency press team about managing science and innovation to respond to the oropouche in Cuba, which has already accumulated nearly 12,000 suspected cases since the first report of its presence here.

The expert recalled that this is an arbovirus disease which was first reported in the 1950s in the vicinity of the Oropouche River in Trinidad and Tobago, then in Brazil, in the Amazon area, and now affects several countries in the Americas region, The Pan American Health Organization has therefore called for increased vigilance in this area.

She stressed that since last May, thanks to the structured health surveillance system and surveillance for arbovirosis, Cuba began to diagnose oropouche and was able to quickly establish clinical criteria, diagnoses and entomological surveillance, which governs actions on the vector, such as where it moves, how it moves, populations.

All this, added Morales Suárez, has been triggered, based on scientific evidence, both international and Cuba’s own by the demonstrated capabilities it has to organize a folder with a strong research component, innovation and development in the face of such events.

We have achieved this, she emphasized, not only because we have the capabilities to do so, but also because we are implementing the lessons learned during the confrontation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The director of Science and Innovation at Minsap said that the scientific management related to the confrontation with the oropouche in Cuba is one of the components of the comprehensive action plan that the country has against this disease.

She pointed out that a recent visit of a technical mission from the Pan-American Health Organization, this was recognized as a very comprehensive plan, which covers many components and goes from the government structures, the ministerial ones to the base, the population.

The science and innovation portfolio that has been generated here to respond to this arbovirosis, and will be expanded in the coming days and months, said the specialist, has a look similar to that prepared for covid-1919, but according to the characteristics of this new disease for the country.

With this goal, she argued, we will do strong entomological studies, because we have to know more about the vector, so we are doing an important group of research in the virological order that have as a reference center the IPK.

Also, she added, we have a large research package to clinically characterize how the disease is occurring in Cuba. We are characterizing, exemplified, as it gives to the elderly, the youngest, pregnant women, with own research of the pediatric clinic, obstetrics, among others.

In addition, she added, there is another important set of research packages on the link between environment, disease and vector, in the sense of how climate change influences the vector, in epidemic outbreaks.

And to all this is added, reported, a strong component of social communication, to keep our population informed, because this, when the COVID-19, recalled the expert, was the number one ally of the protocol clinical-managementThe European Commission has published a report on the European Union’s work programme for the European Social Fund.

By going into the management of science and innovation to respond to the oropouche in Cuba, Morales Suárez discussed the strategies for repositioning innovative products in our biotechnology industry and the feasibility of a rapid diagnostic kit because, she stressed, diagnosis is essential, among other tasks.

In a review of the medical and scientific efforts that is developing with agility Cuba to face the oropouche, the director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Minsap recalled that when the covid-19 scientists around the world, at the same time, turned to research, All countries were doing research, but the oropouche case is not the same, he said, since although it has been known since the 1950s, it has not had such a widespread incidence.

That is why, he argued, the eyes are on Cuba, which by its scientific potential, technological potential, and the capacity of its scientists and health professionals can offer many answers to know and face this disease.

In this sense, she pointed out, as we develop the research, with the seriousness, ethics and rigor that we always maintain, and start to get results, We must make publications so that the international scientific community can gain more knowledge on the subject.

Although it seems incredible, said the Minsap’s director, there are issues we are seeing in Cuba, such as neurological complications and others that we are studying and clinical manifestations, which is still too early to talk about, but not described in the literature.

We, she added, have a responsibility in scientific communication, especially to the scientific community, that all solid evidence is published, and already in such a short time, just three or four months from the report of the first cases of oropouche in Cuba, We have three publications, by researchers from the IPK and the Minsap, in very high-impact journals, which are circulating around the world and are being highly valued, and there are half a dozen manuscripts ready to be sent to specialized journals.

I think, reflected Doctor Ileana Morales Suárez, that we are in another new stage of the Cuban science in which it will demonstrate its relevance, that relevant science, as demonstrated to us the confrontation to the pandemic of COVID-19, which is made on request, Missions, focusing on what is needed, by objectives, to be more efficient. (Text and photo: Cubadebate)