Cairns records locally caught case of dengue amid global surge
Cairns has recorded its first locally acquired dengue virus infection since 2018, but the region has dodged a bullet amid a global surge in the illness.
Queensland Health reported the case on Monday, with health officials confirming the patient was recovering at home a day later.
'We are [now] looking into how they may have become infected,' Cairns and Hinterland public health service director Jacqui Murdoch said.
'Our team is spraying mosquitoes in the area where the patient lives, and examining whether we need to spray any other areas where the person may have visited during the infection period.'
In Australia, mosquitoes capable of transmitting dengue are found only in Queensland's tropics.
Murdoch said the risk for further cases was low, since the region's mosquitoes were largely unable to transmit dengue virus following intervention from the World Mosquito Program from 2011 to 2018, which targeted towns including Cairns and Townsville.
The program, managed out of Monash University, introduced the Wolbachia bacterium to local mosquito populations, reducing their capacity to spread dengue.
Assistant Professor Katie Anders – a researcher from the Monash School of Public Health, and previously the World Mosquito Program – said the bacterium was not 100 per cent effective.
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