Neuropsychiatric manifestations and persistence of neurological symptoms in patients with oropouche fever

Abstract

Introduction: Recently, OROV fever has garnered more attention from the research community due to the substantial increase in cases. Objective: To characterize the population of patients confirmed with OROV fever in the municipality of Songo la Maya and Santiago de Cuba, according to selected clinical variables. Methods: A case series study was conducted on a random sample of 43 patients with Oropouche fever. Summary measures were used, and percentages were estimated for qualitative variables and means and standard deviations for quantitative variables. The chi-square test of independence was used. The ethical principles established in the Declaration of Helsinki were followed. Results: Anxiety was the most prevalent symptom in the series (60.5%), and headache showed significant differences in its presentation (81.4%). Dysautonomia was the most frequent complication (76.2%), and 3 patients (14.3%) in the sample presented with Guillain-Barré syndrome. The estimated duration of symptoms was 13.3 days (SD = 4.5), exceeding 15 days in women (80.0%), with no statistically significant association between the categories of either variable (p = 0.6963). Conclusions: Oropouche virus infection showed evidence of varied psychopathological and neurological manifestations. Anxiety was part of the clinical presentation, and nervous system-related alterations such as headache and photophobia were predominant. There were also some novel, though not severe, neurological presentations.