Heartbreak for Aussie families as death toll from 'killer' disease hits 'unprecedented' numbers
At least 31 Aussies have died after being infected by tropical disease melioidosis so far this year, with 211 cases recorded across the state.
The number of people suffering from the disease, caused by bacteria lurking in mud and dirty water, has seen a significant increase compared to previous years.
The family of Evan Brown, who contracted the disease and died in hospital in March last year, warned that Australians should not assume their symptoms are flu.
'That's something we didn't put together and I really wish that we had,' his wife Sarah Brown said.
'I really hope that people can start to hear the message and really understand that it is present - and it's probably going to get worse if we keep having these big flood seasons.'
Mr Brown, who was diabetic with an auto-immune condition, thought he had suffered from a virus after being sick on and off for a month before he was admitted to hospital.
His organs began shutting down and he was airlifted to the Gold Coast where he eventually passed away.
Ms Brown said the rising death toll was incredibly triggering for her family.
'It's been really scary for us because obviously it makes everything very present and very conscious again for us,' she said.
The fatal tropical disease, caused by bacteria which lives in water or soil that has been disturbed, is commonly detected in northern Australia.
It is seasonal in nature, with cases often occurring during wet season when there has been heavy rain or flooding, such as that seen across Queensland during autumn.
Professor Paul Griffin, Mater Health Services' director of infectious diseases, said the extraordinary flooding in north Queensland was a key factor in the surging cases.
'When you see the rainfall and the flooding events that we've had, it was expected that we'd have a potential increase in cases,' he said.
'But I think the magnitude and the number of deaths in particular is a bit of a surprise.'
Some medical experts have also suggested the disturbance of soil during the Bruce Highway upgrade could be a contributing factor.
'It's certainly been speculated that there's some clustering of cases around there and that may be a factor,' Prof Griffin said.
Infrastructure body Transport and Main Roads, which is responsible for the project, has said previously that they met with researchers about the construction.
'Should health investigations confirm ground-disturbing works are a contributing factor in the spread of soil-borne bacteria causing illnesses, TMR will implement any recommendations from experts to ensure essential road projects meet the highest level of safety,' a TMR spokesperson said.
Those with underlying health conditions like diabetes and lung disease, along with people who drink a lot of alcohol, are urged to take precautions.
Symptoms include fever, pneumonia, exhaustion, vomiting, abdominal pains and chest pressure.
When potentially exposed to contaminated water or handling soil, gumboots, long pants, gloves and masks are recommended.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
When a sick possum showed up in my garden my heart overtook my head. Is it ever OK to feed urban wildlife?
Chopping vegetables in my kitchen on a winter afternoon, I was startled by the sound of rustling branches and loud coughing coming from my back yard. I walked outside tentatively, prepared to face a fence-hopping intruder. Instead, after a few minutes of listening to evenly timed wheezes, I spotted it – a small brushtail possum, tucked behind lilly-pilly branches bowing over my fence. Through the leaves, two black eyes peered desperately into the afternoon sun, eyelids dotted with pus. Its pink nose was swollen and its body and limbs were a patchwork of rashes, with pieces of fur missing across its torso. Huffing and bloodied, the possum looked like a once-loved teddy bear – greying, losing its stuffing and left to decay in the garden. My bleeding heart took over my head and I dashed inside and grabbed a bag of frozen berries, dumping a handful in a glass of water to thaw before wandering out and dropping a few wet fruits on the fence. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Over the afternoon I watched the sick possum pick up berries, nibbling while purple juice dripped off its chin. As the sun set it put its head into its chest, wheezing itself to sleep. Feeding native wildlife is a divisive topic. While some throw mince to kookaburras with wild abandon, others tut tut, insisting it's best to let them fend for themselves. I called the wildlife rescue organisation Wires, which advised us to capture the possum so it could receive veterinary care. As my husband slowly approached with an old bath towel, in a scene not dissimilar from the 1931 film Dracula, the possum suddenly reanimated, screeched loudly then scampered into the night. Despite its terror it was clearly tempted by the prospect of more thawed-out berries because a few days later it returned. But I was not keen on trying to catch the possum again. After seeing it thrash around in fear, I worried that the stress of the ordeal might actually hasten its death. Diligently, and against best advice, I began leaving food for it. Providing slices of apple and carrot seemed like a neighbourly thing to do. But regular offerings might harm an animal more than they help. Brushtail possums in a natural environment eat native shrubs, plants and leaves. This is why a professor of behavioural ecology, Clare McArthur, says feeding brushtail possums should largely be avoided: 'What are we doing to their gut flora? How good is [the food] we're feeding them? 'If they become reliant on us, what happens when we go away?' John Grant from Wires says feeding poses other risks, too. 'They can also become 'humanised' and lose their natural fear of potential predators including domestic pets,' he says. 'Possums (and native birds) are best fed with native foliage, so planting native trees and shrubs endemic to your area helps provide them with a natural food source.' Male possums being routinely fed can also become stressed when other males, keen for an opportunistic meal, encroach on their territory, which they naturally want to defend, according to a Taronga veterinary nurse, Annii Downing. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion McArthur says giving a brushtail the odd piece of healthy food might not be a cardinal sin. 'Now and then, it would be OK, because one of the virtues is that we start to value the wildlife around us. So it's not a yes or no thing. It's a fine line.' While official advice on wild animal feeding skews negative, Prof emeritus Darryl Jones from Griffith University agrees that responsibly interacting with urban wildlife can increase people's compassion for animals. 'No wild animals in Australia need extra food,' Jones says. 'The reality is, millions of people every single day are feeding birds, and can't find any information.' Compelled to counter this information void with facts, the behavioural ecologist, bird feeder and author of 10 books wrote a popular Australian field guide to urban birds, Feeding the Birds at Your Table. 'If you Google 'What should I feed my magpies' you'll get inundated with huge amounts of negativity,' he says. 'That's my thing … to reconnect people with nature. 'Only when people care about, look for, observe and just try and understand the wildlife around us will they care enough to protect them. 'That's the big philosophical side to this.' Just under a year on, I still see the possum on our fence. Its wounds have healed, it no longer wheezes or wobbles. Instead it has taken to chewing my veggie patch, gnawing rainbow chard and parsley down to the mulch line every few days. While I used to enjoy my own harvest, I now laugh at what the picky possum has chosen and wonder why it doesn't like lemon thyme. Some nights, it seems as though there's been a possum party. I wake to lilly-pilly fruits strewn like confetti across our concrete back yard. And every so often my husband still leaves out an apple slice for the possum. Even though we know we shouldn't. Philosophically, though, I think it is sound.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Concern Australian doctor ‘pushed' out as chair of medical insurer board over social media posts on Gaza war
High-profile emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis has stepped down as chair of the board of a leading medical insurance provider in an apparent response to concerns about statements he has made on social media opposing the war in Gaza. Parnis, a former vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, announced in an email to members of the Medical Insurance Group of Australia (Miga) last Monday that he was giving up his role as chair of the board. 'I have exercised my right as an individual to comment on matters in the public domain based on my own views and conscience,' Parnis said in the email. 'At no time have I purported to represent these interests on behalf of Miga and its members, however, I consider it prudent to step down from my role as Chair of the Board.' Sign up: AU Breaking News email Parnis said he would remain as a director on the board but that Miga would be 'reviewing its Social Media Policy to ensure it reflects good governance and contemporary expectations of everyone who represents our organisation and our members'. Miga is a major indemnity insurance provider for healthcare workers, providing access to legal and financial support to manage medical malpractice claims. It has more than 30,000 members. Parnis, who became a director of Miga in 2019, has been a vocal opponent of Israel's war in Gaza and sympathised with Palestinians. He has also been openly critical of the Trump regime and Robert F Kennedy Jr's anti-vaccination stance, expressed opposition to voluntary assisted dying and voiced his opinion on other matters. In an article for the health website Croakey in October last year, Parnis argued that doctors should take a position on Gaza because they had 'an important role to play in advocating for harm reduction'. He also said he had 'seen the personal attacks, the financial and social persecution of those whose careful assessments have led them to speak out for the reduction of harm and violence in Israel and Palestine'. He paid tribute in the article to the medical professionals in Gaza, where the Palestinian health ministry reports at least 1,581 health workers have been killed since 7 October 2023. Parnis posts regularly to X about human rights issues and has received public threats and abuse on that platform in response to his posts on Gaza. Parnis has also spoken out against instances of alleged antisemitism in the community. A coordinated letter writing campaign in support of Parnis accused Miga of having 'pushed Stephen Parnis out of his board chair position for expressing his personal views on Gaza' and urged Miga members to write to the board, requesting 'clarification on the circumstances surrounding this decision'. Noting that the medical board's code of conduct acknowledged the rights of doctors to express their personal views in line with their ethics, the letter said: 'It raises significant concerns if Dr Parnis has been asked to step down specifically for expressing his views, especially considering his exemplary advocacy during a critical humanitarian crisis. This situation prompts questions about whether … Miga will support its members who are targeted by vexatious complaints.' At the time of writing, 63 emails had been sent as part of that campaign. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion A Melbourne GP, Dr Mariam Tokhi, told Guardian Australia that health workers had been 'quietly struggling' against 'covert silencing of people who speak out against violence or criticise Israel' for the past couple of years. 'That has included a spate of vexatious complaints against health workers who have expressed public concerns about Israel's destruction of Gaza,' Tokhi said. 'Many of us are worried about Miga's move for Dr Parnis to step down as chair, as clinicians rely on the Medical Defence Organisation to support us against vexatious complaints.' In an article for Croakey on Friday, paediatric rehabilitation physician Dr Safiyyah Abbas questioned whether Parnis' demotion was 'the sentinel event for Australian doctors' who spoke publicly about their views on Gaza. 'Miga and other medical indemnity companies must urgently clarify whether they will protect doctors who speak up for Palestine and criticise Israel (or Australia or any other country, for that matter) to allow doctors to make an informed decision, given they must be indemnified to work,' Abbas wrote. Parnis declined to comment to Guardian Australia. Miga declined to comment on the circumstances of Parnis's resignation but said in a statement: 'We support, represent, and advocate for all of our members – regardless of race or culture, religion, age, gender or sexuality – to ensure they can practise safely and confidently, and deliver quality care to the community. As a broad and diverse member organisation, Miga respects the rights of all of our members to hold and express personal and differing views.'Do you know more? Contact:
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Aussie tourist dies while holidaying in Vietnam as tributes pour in for 'much-loved' chiropractor
A Melbourne chiropractor has died in a tragic accident while on holiday overseas. Dr Sean Crawford, who was aged in his late 20s, died while travelling in Vietnam on August 5. The specific details of the accident have not been released. The 'much-loved' chiropractor worked at Wellbeing Chiropractic's Melton and Tarneit clinics, about 25km west of Melbourne's CBD. 'It is with deep sadness we share the tragic news of the passing of our colleague and friend, Dr Sean Crawford, following an accident while he was on holidays recently in Vietnam,' the clinic wrote on Facebook. 'Dr Sean was a valued and much loved member of our team, caring for patients at our Melton and Tarneit clinics with warmth, skill, and dedication. 'His sudden passing has left a profound loss for our staff, patients, and the wider community. 'Our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences are with Sean's family, friends, patients, and all who had the privilege of knowing him. 'Your passion, kindness, and dedication will live on in the many lives you touched.' Dr Crawford was born and raised in Western Australia before moving to Victoria in 2010 with his family. The Melbourne chiropractor went on to study at RMIT University. Patients paid tribute to Dr Crawford online. 'Still in shock since I received a call from the staff regarding this devastated news, he was such an amazing person who will be deeply missed,' one wrote. 'Dr Sean was an amazing chiropractor so young talented and friendly I felt so comfortable talking to him,' another added. 'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian who died in Vietnam,' a DFAT spokesperson said. 'We send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time. 'Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.'
