Year's first dengue case in Australia
Updated
Public information campaigns to prevent the spread of dengue fever are well underway around the region.
Cyclone season has created ideal breeding grounds for the mosquitos that carry the disease in places like Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Authorities in the Australian state of Queensland have confirmed the first case of dengue this year in a local woman who returned from Asia.
And as floods and cyclones continue to batter the region, teams of inspectors are combing cities in Australia's north east looking for mosquito breeding sites.
Presenter: Josh Bavas
Speaker: Darren Alsemgeest, helps councils search for mosquito breeding grounds; Dr Steven Donahue, Queensland Health
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JOSH BAVAS: Residents in north Queensland are all too familiar with the dangers of living in the tropics. (sound of mosquito) Once again the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the insect that spreads dengue, is busy breeding in the stagnant waters of the urban sprawl.
DARREN ALSEMGEEST: It's a daytime biter so it will lurk around the day.
JOSH BAVAS: Darren Alsemgeest works closely with council patrols that have started searching backyards for pools of still water left over from last week's heavy rain.
DARREN ALSEMGEEST: It will get you during the day. It will bite you during the day. So people need to protect themselves during the day. You know, if they're having a barbeque in the backyard, light a mosquito coil.
JOSH BAVAS: Dr Steven Donahue from the Department of Tropical Population Heath says conditions are now perfect for an outbreak.
STEVEN DONAHUE: Dengue is a horrible disease occasionally with quite nasty complications requiring hospital. But most people suffer terrible pains and are basically unable to move for a week or 10 days. There's no specific treatment.
JOSH BAVAS: Stopping the mosquitoes from breeding has an added urgency. A woman who returned to a highly populated area of Townsville from Vietnam was confirmed as this year's first case of dengue two days ago.
STEVEN DONAHUE: Launched a response basically because most of the towns in north Queensland have got Aedes aegypti - the specific mosquito that can carry this disease and we need to work very quickly to avoid outbreaks when this happens.
JOSH BAVAS: More than 1,000 north Queenslanders contracted dengue fever last year, setting a new record. Dr Donahue is waiting to find out if the latest case is a different strain of the disease compared to what was previously circulating.
STEVEN DONAHUE: We probably get in north Queensland maybe 20 imports a year and international travellers who've come back either incubating the disease or already sick. It's impossible to stop these things from happening.
JOSH BAVAS: More than a fifth of all imported cases of the virus spread domestically. The Council's Darren Alsemgeest says while simple tasks can prevent the spread of disease within Australian borders, there is no way to stop imported cases.
