Dengue fever outbreak now in Townsville

Jan 5 2009

While health authorities continue to battle to contain an outbreak of Dengue fever in Cairns in north Queensland, further down the coast an outbreak has now been reported in Townsville.

The Cairns outbreak has now been raging for almost a month, exacerbated by wet and warm weather conditions, and authorities are struggling to get the message home to many residents about avoiding creating the conditions in their homes and yards that mosquitoes need to thrive and breed.

The two cases of Dengue fever confirmed in Townsville initially sparked concerns that the Cairns outbreak was spreading further afield but health officials say the strain of Dengue in Townsville is different.

According to Townsville's Tropical Population Health Unit two confirmed Dengue cases were locally-acquired and is a different strain to that which is currently causing the outbreak in Cairns.

Acting director Gerhard Ehlers says anyone with symptoms such as fever, headache, rash, vomiting, diarrhoea or fatigue should immediately see a doctor and though there has only been one Dengue fever-related death in Australian in the last 100 years, with haemorrhagic dengue there is a 2, 3% fatality rate.

Residents of Townsville and Magnetic Island are being urged to protect themselves against Dengue fever and the Tropical Population Health Services says surveillance and control work was already under way but calls for all Townsville residents to protect themselves against Dengue to avoid an escalation of the outbreak.

Residents are being urged to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes by using insect repellent, clearing away potential breeding sites such as old tyres, buckets, toys and pot plant bases around their homes and workplaces and also ensuring that roof gutters are not blocked and breeding mosquitoes.