At the beginning of November, following an unusual disease outbreak in Bolivia, WCS was contacted by national authorities, particularly the Ministry of Public Health, the National Service of Agricultural Health and Food Safety (SENASAG) and General Directorate of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (DGBAP), requesting technical assistance, within the framework of the PREDICT project, to conduct epidemiological studies and support the establishment of measures to control these diseases.
The state of alarm began with the recent appearance of several cases of rabies in camelids transmitted by foxes in Potosi; three Hantavirus cases in Santa Cruz and the first report of this virus in Beni; a first confirmed case and suspected new cases of hemorrhagic fever near Trinidad, Beni, far away from the endemic area of this disease.
A common environmental feature found in the areas affected by Hantavirus and hemorrhagic fever has been the change in land use by deforestation and the replacement of natural vegetation for rice crops. It is possible that these changes are favoring the proliferation and spread of rodent as reservoirs and increased contact between wildlife and people. Moreover, cases of rabies detected in the surroundings of Potosi have been associated with camelid livestock attacks by foxes; this has been confirmed in laboratories of LIDIVET by the identification of rabies virus in the brain of a fox. For both camelids and foxes, these reports are new for the area and for the country, and could be linked to the alarming increase of quinoa crops in the region.
In this context, government agencies (Ministry of Public Health, SENASAG and DGBAP) will hold a workshop in mid December, which will be supported and have the participation of WCS and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in order to analyse, discuss and define strategies for integrated management of zoonotic diseases in Bolivia.