Dengue Spreads in Northern Australia; Worst Outbreak Since 2004
By Simeon Bennett
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Dengue sickened more than 100 people in northeastern Australia, marking the worst outbreak of the potentially lethal mosquito-borne disease since 2004.
Ninety-seven people were ill in Cairns, Queensland state, while 350 kilometers (218 miles) south in Townsville, an unrelated outbreak of a different strain of the virus struck six people, said Brian Montgomery, a senior medical entomologist with Queensland Health. More than 10 people have been hospitalized, though none have died, he said. An outbreak in 2003 and 2004 struck almost 900 people, killing one.
“It’s nasty and it’s fast,” Montgomery said in a telephone interview. “I hate to say it, but we’ve got many more cases to come and it’s anyone’s guess as to what it could be.”
Health officials are concerned the two outbreaks may merge, raising the risk the epidemic will turn deadly. While people infected with one type of dengue develop lifelong immunity to that virus, studies have shown subsequent infection with a different strain makes a person more susceptible to a complication called dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can kill.
The Cairns outbreak, of type 3 of the virus, began after a resident infected in Kalimantan, Indonesia, returned to the city, Montgomery said. Townsville’s type-1 outbreak has been traced to Singapore, he said.
Hot, humid weather and rainfall in the region has helped the Aedes aegypti mosquito species, which spreads dengue, to breed more than normal for this time of year, Montgomery said.
Ideal Weather
“We still have ideal weather patterns at the moment for prolific Aedes aegypti breeding, and we have dengue in more areas of Cairns than we can respond to comprehensively,” he said. “We’re bracing ourselves for an outbreak which could persist to April or May.”
Health workers have laid more than 2,000 traps in homes around Cairns and local authorities are issuing fines of A$375 ($264) to households that fail to clear mosquito-breeding sites from their yards, Montgomery said.
Dengue strikes about 50 million people a year worldwide and leads to about 500,000 hospitalizations, mostly of children, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization. About 22,000 die.
An outbreak in Brazil last year struck more than 120,000 people. Cairns has had 22 dengue outbreaks since 1990.
Symptoms include high fever, headaches, joint and muscle pain, vomiting and rashes. Usually, people with dengue recover within two weeks, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The infection can be fatal when it turns into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which causes bleeding from the nose, gums or under the skin, or dengue shock syndrome, which causes massive bleeding and shock, according to NIH.
There are no drugs or vaccine for the disease.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at [email protected]
Last Updated: January 11, 2009 01:55 EST
By Simeon Bennett
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Dengue sickened more than 100 people in northeastern Australia, marking the worst outbreak of the potentially lethal mosquito-borne disease since 2004.
Ninety-seven people were ill in Cairns, Queensland state, while 350 kilometers (218 miles) south in Townsville, an unrelated outbreak of a different strain of the virus struck six people, said Brian Montgomery, a senior medical entomologist with Queensland Health. More than 10 people have been hospitalized, though none have died, he said. An outbreak in 2003 and 2004 struck almost 900 people, killing one.
“It’s nasty and it’s fast,” Montgomery said in a telephone interview. “I hate to say it, but we’ve got many more cases to come and it’s anyone’s guess as to what it could be.”
Health officials are concerned the two outbreaks may merge, raising the risk the epidemic will turn deadly. While people infected with one type of dengue develop lifelong immunity to that virus, studies have shown subsequent infection with a different strain makes a person more susceptible to a complication called dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can kill.
The Cairns outbreak, of type 3 of the virus, began after a resident infected in Kalimantan, Indonesia, returned to the city, Montgomery said. Townsville’s type-1 outbreak has been traced to Singapore, he said.
Hot, humid weather and rainfall in the region has helped the Aedes aegypti mosquito species, which spreads dengue, to breed more than normal for this time of year, Montgomery said.
Ideal Weather
“We still have ideal weather patterns at the moment for prolific Aedes aegypti breeding, and we have dengue in more areas of Cairns than we can respond to comprehensively,” he said. “We’re bracing ourselves for an outbreak which could persist to April or May.”
Health workers have laid more than 2,000 traps in homes around Cairns and local authorities are issuing fines of A$375 ($264) to households that fail to clear mosquito-breeding sites from their yards, Montgomery said.
Dengue strikes about 50 million people a year worldwide and leads to about 500,000 hospitalizations, mostly of children, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization. About 22,000 die.
An outbreak in Brazil last year struck more than 120,000 people. Cairns has had 22 dengue outbreaks since 1990.
Symptoms include high fever, headaches, joint and muscle pain, vomiting and rashes. Usually, people with dengue recover within two weeks, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The infection can be fatal when it turns into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which causes bleeding from the nose, gums or under the skin, or dengue shock syndrome, which causes massive bleeding and shock, according to NIH.
There are no drugs or vaccine for the disease.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at [email protected]
Last Updated: January 11, 2009 01:55 EST
