First cases of 'sloth' virus that has killed people in their 20s detected in Europe as experts fear 'unstoppable' spread

Europe has recorded its initial cases of Oropouche, days after two women died in Brazil after contracting the virus rapidly spreading in South America.

The spread, which can be carried from sloths to humans via insects, has sparked concerns among experts over a potential "unstoppable" spread. The medical journal Lancet revealed that two individuals who had visited Cuba presented with Oropouche symptoms upon their return to Italy.

A 26-year-old woman experienced a fever and diarrhoea following her trip from Cuba's Ciego de Avila province to Verona on May 26. Another traveller, understood to be a 45-year-old man, showed signs of the virus after visiting Havana and Santiago de Cuba, subsequently seeking healthcare in Fori, northern Italy, on June 7.

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"We should definitely be worried," Imperial College London's Immunology Professor Dr Danny Altmann told The Telegraph. "Things are changing and may become unstoppable."

The experts underlined the risk of "significant human movement" facilitating wider propagation of the virus, highlighting the surge of summer travel between Cuba and Europe as an added concern. Increasing global temperatures could exacerbate human exposure to viruses like Oropouche, scientists caution.

The Department of Tropical Infectious Diseases and Microbiology of the Scientific Research Hospital Sacred Heart Don Calabria, north of Verona, carried out tests which showed the presence of Oropouche in the patients’ blood after they returned from Cuba to Italy. Both travellers made a full recovery, the Telegraph reported.

Managing emerging pathogens at a Verona hospital, Dr Concetta Castilletti remarked: