Rocio viral encephalitis is an epidemic flaviviral disease of humans first observed in São Paulo State, Brazil, in 1975.[1] Low-level enzootic transmission is likely continuing in the epidemic zone, and with increased deforestation and population expansion, additional epidemics caused by Rocio virus are highly probable.[2] If migratory species of birds are, or become involved in, the virus transmission cycle, the competency of a wide variety of mosquito species for transmitting Rocio virus experimentally suggest that the virus may become more widely distributed.[2] The encephalitis outbreak in the western hemisphere caused by West Nile virus, a related flavivirus, highlights the potential for arboviruses to cause severe problems far from their source enzootic foci.[2]
The causative Rocio virus belongs to the genus Flavivirus (the same genus as the Zika virus) in family Flaviviridae and is closely related serologically to Ilhéus, St. Louis encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis and Murray Valley encephalitis viruses.[2]