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The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
China virus outbreak: Expert reveals if Australia should be worried
A mosquito-borne virus sweeping through southern China has now reached Taiwan, but Australian infectious disease expert Nick Coatsworth said the risk to Australia remains low. Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that causes fever, severe joint pain, rash, and fatigue, and while rarely fatal, it can lead to prolonged symptoms lasting weeks or even months. More than 10,000 cases have been reported across at least a dozen Chinese cities, with around 3,000 new infections in the past week. The virus has been known to cause occasional outbreaks across Asia, Africa, and the Americas for decades. Picture: Supplied Speaking on Ben Fordham Live on 2GB, Dr Coatsworth said Australia should not share China's level of concern. 'I think China needs to be concerned. I don't think we need to share that concern in Australia,' Dr Coatsworth said. 'The problem with China is that humans are an amplifying host, which means when you get an epidemic, the virus sits in humans and mosquitoes, and in densely populated areas that can make it very difficult to control,' Dr Coatsworth explained. He noted that Australia already deals with a similar virus, the Ross River virus, which produces comparable symptoms. While returned travellers have brought chikungunya — a virus whose name comes from Tanzania, meaning 'to double over' — into Australia before, he said it was unlikely to spread in a pandemic-like fashion. Dr Nick Coatsworth said Australia should not share China's level of concern. Picture Supplied. 'This is not a new virus, it's an old one,' Dr Coatsworth said. 'I don't think it's going to be something like Covid that's going to spread around the world in a pandemic sort of fashion.' However, he expressed ongoing concerns about transparency in China's handling of emerging diseases. 'The thing I worry about is not the virus, but the transparency of the Chinese government if there is a new virus,' he said. 'We saw no signs after the pandemic … the Morrison Government tried very hard to get insight into what happened in Wuhan. Ultimately, that failed, and the Albanese Government utterly abandoned any attempt to get any clarity.' Health experts say most people recover fully, but some may experience lingering symptoms for months. Picture: Supplied The US Centres for Disease Control has issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Guangdong, urging travellers to take extra precautions, while Chinese authorities have introduced strict prevention measures reminiscent of the country's COVID-19 response, including quarantines, mass surveillance, and mandatory pharmacy reporting of fever-related drug sales. Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control confirmed its first imported case of chikungunya fever on Friday, a woman who had recently returned from Foshan, the epicentre of China's outbreak in Guangdong Province. Read related topics: China Ties Andrew Hedgman Reporter Andrew Hedgman is a journalist for NCA Newswire. Andrew Hedgman
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
Ambulance ramping reaches record high in South Australia amid flu season
South Australia has had its worst ambulance ramping on record as the government says the number of flu cases are at its peak. In July, patients have spent 5,866 hours ramped in ambulances outside public hospitals, more than the previous highest record of 5,539 hours in July last year. The ramping figures are released alongside state government data that shows there have been 18,293 flu cases so far this year compared to 12,992 last year. Early July marked the most weekly flu cases in six years with 2,020 cases and 208 hospitalisations in the state. Health Minister Chris Picton said the worsening ramping was exacerbated by the flu and the number of aged care patients waiting for discharge to a facility. "We saw a big influx of flu patients the past month … that led to incredible pressure on our hospital system, not only in terms of the patients who are presenting but also in terms of staff illnesses," he said. "Flu's been the highest it's been at anytime this decade and that's putting pressure at the same time we've got this federal aged care pressures at our hospitals." The health minister says there are 280 patients in Adelaide hospitals waiting for a federal aged care bed. "It's basically the size of an entire Modbury Hospital taken out of the system with people who don't need to be in hospital anymore," he said. Mr Picton said one of ways to move patients out of hospitals and combat ramping was their hotel health service at the Pullman Hotel in the Adelaide CBD. "We're doing this because our hospitals are full," Mr Picton said. "We're doing so because there are so many patients stuck in our hospital system waiting for a bed … they need to be in a federal aged care bed but we can't get them into it." The government said more than 200 hospital patients have been cared for at the hotel — and the equivalent of 4,000 hospital bed days have been freed up — since the service started in February. Under the Transition Care Service, health professionals in the hotel provide care to patients, who need rehabilitation or are waiting for an aged care bed, before they are ready to go home or to a long-term facility. David Jackson, who recently had ankle surgery, said he felt safe, cared for and "mentally at ease" while recovering at the Pullman Hotel. "I could be there [in hospital] for six weeks, six weeks in a bed that could be for someone that has [a] medical condition that needs more attention to," he said. Mr Picton says its "successful" hotel health service will double its capacity from 24 to 48 beds. But the Australian Medical Association SA president, Associate Professor Peter Subramaniam, said the hotel health service was not a sustainable solution to the healthcare system. "The AMA welcomes any steps that reduces the pressure on our hospitals but let's be clear this is not a solution, this is a workaround." He said SA's record ramping figures in July was "a symptom of a system completely under stress and, as a consequence of that, a workforce under stress". He called for a "whole-of-system investment" to boost capacity in hospitals and rehabilitation centres, as well as prevent staff burnout. "Increasing investment in our community services including our very important GPs would reduce the need for patients to return to acute care hospitals," he said. "That would help with ramping, that would help with elective surgery numbers, and importantly that would help with our workforce resilience." Opposition Health spokesperson Ashton Hurn welcomed the hotel health service but called on the government to make free flu vaccines and more out-of-hours GP services available. "These two things alone would go some way to minimise the impact of ramping and the congestion in our health system," she said. "This aged care issue has been an issue for a long time — yes it continues to escalate — but the government has doubled the crisis they were elected to fix."
ABC News
8 hours ago
- ABC News
Wombat advocates train army of helpers to treat native animals for mange
Paul Sheehy remembers the day a staff member at his Wee Jasper holiday park in southern NSW found a wombat that had been hit by a car. "We weren't aware, or we had no knowledge about, how to rescue the joey [in its pouch]," he said. The team made a call to Queanbeyan-based animal rescue group Wildcare. "From there we basically forged a relationship looking after the local wombats in our part of the world," Mr Sheehy said. Mr Sheehy has now developed a passion for eradicating a disease that has affected native animals for centuries. "We were asked [if we] were interested [in working] alongside these guys to help eradicate the mange," he said. Now, staff at the park keep on the lookout for wombats suffering from sarcoptic mange, a sometimes fatal skin disease caused by mites that burrow under the skin. Sarcoptic mange was introduced to the Australian landscape during European settlement and infests more than 150 mammalian species, including humans, koalas and wombats. Elena Guarracino runs a wombat mange eradication program at Wildcare, and has been helping train locals to treat the disease When the program started, there were two people covering most of the southern highlands, from Young to Bredbo. "You cannot run a mange program with two people," she said. In four months, about 140 people have been trained to treat mange in wombats by Ms Guarracino and Wildcare. Ms Guarracino said the wombats' nature to burrow during the day and forage at dawn and dusk made it difficult to give them the four doses needed to treat mange. She said mange was treated by either a direct application of topical medication using an extended pole and a scoop of the treatment, or a burrow flap with a receptacle for the treatment to fall onto the wombats when they enter or leave. Once a wombat is spotted and treated, it is then recorded in an app so it can be monitored. "We're wanting people to … come on board, come and help, and it's working," Ms Guarracino said. WomSAT founder and University of Western Sydney Associate Professor Julie Old said wombats were the "underdogs" of the native animal world. She wanted more citizen scientists to follow the lead of the Wee Jasper park crew and help treat animals for sarcoptic mange. "The more people we have involved that are trained and know what they're doing and how to go about doing it, it will benefit the wombats." Both WomSAT and Wildcare have resources for the public to use to learn how to help wombats with mange. Dr Old said helping wombats had flow-on effects to the surrounding environment. "They build big burrows so that means they are turning the soil over, which helps plants grow" she said. "It helps other animals out by providing shelter for other animals as well."
