Dengue fever scare at Tully
A TULLY woman in her 20s is the first person to contract dengue fever in her town in at least 20 years, marking the first dengue outbreak of the year in North Queensland.
Health officials raced to Tully yesterday morning following confirmation the woman had contracted type 2 dengue, in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Queensland Health medical director Dr Jeffrey Hanna believed the woman may have caught the virus from a mosquito that had bitten an infected traveller.
"Local mosquitoes must have picked up this virus from someone else," Dr Hanna said.
"We don’t know who that original person is, presumably an overseas traveller who has arrived in Tully.
"We don’t know who that person is, we may never know, but we do know a local resident who hasn’t travelled outside the township has acquired dengue."
The outbreak follows the worst epidemic of dengue in 50 years in North Queensland last wet season, when a record 931 cases of dengue type 3 were confirmed.
Since then, officials had recorded four imported cases of dengue in Cairns and 13 endemic cases in Townsville.
Queensland Health has stepped up its dengue response team, boosting staff and monitoring areas in an effort to combat the disease early in the season. A response team carried out surveys in Tully yesterday, and eliminated any potential mosquito breeding sites.
Dr Hanna said Tully had avoided dengue outbreaks in the past as international visitors who may have been carrying the virus may not have stopped in the town.
"It’s probably coincidental, rather than Tully having something unique about it in terms of its mosquito environment," Dr Hanna said.
"If it was a larger community and it had more of a tourist draw, then I’m sure we would have seen outbreaks in previous years."
Dengue is estimated to afflict more than 50 million people worldwide each year, and kill an estimated 20,000.
People are urged to get rid of mosquito breeding sites in the yard and workplace.
"This is very much a domestic mosquito, in and around people’s homes," he said.
More information about dengue fever is available at the Queensland Health website.
Share this article
On patrol: Queensland Health vector control officer Karel van Horck sprays a garden on Brannigan St, Tully, yesterday after the town’s first case of the disease in at least two decades. Picture: JULIE LIGHTFOOT
Queensland Ballet drops Cairns tours
QUEENSLAND Ballet has dropped Cairns from its major productions' tours, saying it has outgrown the city's theatre and places like Townsville have "significantly better" venues.
Highway crash near Ellis Beach
BREAKING NEWS: Two cars have collided on the Captain Cook Highway near Ellis Beach.
Car crash cuts power at Miriwinni
BREAKING NEWS: A car crash at Miriwinni this morninghas cut power to the region.
Cairns warned of weekend king tides
RESIDENTS in low-lying areas have been warned of possible flooding as king tides are expected in Cairns over the weekend.
Cattle deaths blamed on lightning strike
A FREAK natural occurrence is how stock squad police have described the death of 27 head of cattle struck by lightning on a Tully property.
