Outbreak Information and News
U.S. ongoing Dengue
transmission, Key West, Florida
27 laboratory-confirmed, locally
acquired dengue cases occurred in Key West in 2009 and a
further 12 cases have been confirmed since April 2010. In a
survey sample, 5% of Key West residents have detectable
dengue antibodies, suggesting the likelihood that dengue is
now endemic in the area. A recent suspected case in Miami
was ruled out by laboratory testing.
We recommend travellers
practice daytime insect precautions, there is no vaccine
yet. CDC
Measles from World Cup
A confirmed case of measles has
been reported in a returned traveller from the FIFA World
Cup in South Africa. A 24-year-old male travelled from
Australia to South Africa. He did not seek pre-travel
medical advice, but had been immunised as a child. He
attended 5 world cup matches. It is speculated that he
became infected in either Cape Town or Rustenberg.
Transmission of measles within domed [roofed] sporting
arenas has been described previously. There is currently a
large current outbreak of measles in South Africa. Young
Adults (especially those born from 1966 - 1982) are at risk
of measles infection if they have only had one immunisation.
One measles vaccine in childhood is not enough.
All travellers are recommended to seek advice on travel health
risks and have their free measles booster if relevant. Promed
Limberger cheese and Malaria
Limburger is a cheese especially
known for its pungent odor. It was first made in the 19th
century in Europe. Some years ago, scientist reported that
Malaria mosquitoes were equally attracted to the smell of Limberger cheese as they were to the smell of humans.
Some
studies have used Limberger cheese to distract malaria
mosquitoes away from humans in high risk malaria regions!
Mosquitoes ... love at first
buzz?
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Anopheles gambiae
mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite, yet there
are many different species of mosquitoes, some
of these the scientists can hardly tell apart.
How do mosquitoes manage to find others of their
own species when its time to mate? Scientists
have found that these mosquitoes do it by
harmonizing. When researchers brought together a
male and female mosquito of the same Anopheles
gambiae species, the insects adjust the pitch of
their wing beats until they synchronised. If
they couldn't make music together, the
mosquitoes weren't interested in mating.
Read more here. |
Anopheles gambiae mosquito
Photo credit:
CDC/James D. Gathany;
Public Health Image Library |
Malaria is a very old scourge
of humans
When humans left Africa some
50,000 to 60,000 years ago, some were already infected with
the world's most deadly malaria parasites, a new study says.
The findings contradict the view, held by some scientists,
that malaria only began afflicting us about 10,000 years
ago, around the time agriculture was invented.
More info here.
Rabies story from Bali
A 57 year old temple priest has
recently died in Bali The victim, from Desa Sumberkimia,
Gerokgak, Buleleng, was rushed to Sanglah hospital in the
evening of Fri 11 Jun 2010, with clinical symptoms of rabies
virus infection. The victim's son stated that his father had
been bitten on his right hand two months previously by a
stray dog, after a group of strays attacked the man's puppy.
Due to shortage of rabies vaccine in the local health
centre, the victim did not receive treatment for his wound.
According to Nusa Bali records, 49 patients have died as
a result of rabies virus infection in Sanglah hospital.
Dr Ken Wirasandhi, MARS, secretary of Sanglah Hospital
Rabies Control Team confirmed that a patient had symptoms of
rabies.
It is difficult to be certain of exact numbers of rabies
deaths in Bali. Promed reports there are now 61 Bali rabies
victims named by local media with detailed descriptions of
rabies symptoms, plus as many as 25 more who have not been
named and whose symptoms have not been described.
More here.
Travellers to Bali need to be VERY
careful to avoid contact with animals, especially monkeys
and dogs.
Seasick? Try controlling your
breathing
If you get seasick easily, you
may prepare for boat rides with ginger, phenergan or even
valium. Now there's one more remedy:
timing your breathing
to counteract the nauseating motion. The technique
presumably works because it helps control gravity sensors in
the abdomen, a lesser known input to our fine-tuned balance
system. Researchers from Imperial College London enlisted 26
volunteers to sit in a tilting, rocking flight simulator and
coordinate their breathing in various ways with the motion.
The tests lasted up to 30 minutes, or until subjects felt
moderately sick. The natural tendency was for volunteers to
inhale on every backward tilt, in rhythm with the rocking.
But if the subjects exhaled on every backward tilt, they
didn't get sick as quickly. They felt even better if they
breathed slightly faster or slower than the cyclic heaving
of the chair; using that technique, the time until onset of
nausea was 50% longer than during normal breathing.
Read more here.
...Prepared by Dr Deb Mills, Brisbane, Travel Medical Alliance
Travel Medicine and Celebrities
Former pop singer
and page three girl Samantha Fox was bitten by a
stray cat while holidaying in Thailand.
Newspaper reports said Fox, who was on holidays
with her girlfriend on the island of Koh Samui,
said she was feeding stray cats that gathered
around the restaurant where she was eating.
"This one was laying on my feet and I thought we
were getting on really well so I went to stroke
him, but it bit me so hard, it went down to the
bone," Fox said. As rabies is common in
Thailand, vaccination was required to ensure
that she did not develop the disease. Some of
the reports said she was being treated for
rabies, however this is not accurate.
There is
no treatment for rabies. Once you get rabies,
you die. The treatment is designed to immunise
you against rabies so the virus cannot spread to
your brain. It is a race between your immune
system and the virus.
Cheryl Cole, the singer from the X factor was
recently hospitalised from malaria contracted in
Tanzania. Malaria can be very serious, and
travellers are recommended to take precautions
lest something so tiny cause them big problems.
Read more. |
Samantha Fox
Cheryl Cole |
TMA Member News
Travelling Well
16th Edition coming soon
The next edition
(16th) of the book Travelling Well is
currently at the printers and will be
launched in August.
TMA Townsville member moves to
Brisbane
TMA will no
longer have a member in Townsville as Dr
Inga Atrens of the TMA clinic in Townsville
has now moved back to Brisbane and is
working with Dr Deb in the Brisbane CBD
clinic.
TMA Burnie clinic now
operational in Tasmania
The Burnie PDT clinic is up and
running in the CBD of Burnie a small regional town of 20,000
in NW Tasmania. This is a recently developed, modern clinic
that encompasses both a skin and travel clinic. It is an
extension of City Medical Practice a busy 7 Dr Practice,
which has been providing medical services for 20 years.
Dr Alfonso Messieh, the Principal, and Dr Robyn Dawson are
providing the travel medicine service. Travellers have been
enthusiastic about the new facilities being available in
their home town. Sally Popowski is our Registered Nurse and
Beck Omara is our new receptionist.
 |
 |
Burnie Travel Medicine, Suite 5/10 Marine
Terrace, Burnie, Tasmania
Ph: 03 6431 1722, Email:
burnie@travelmedicine.com.au
Dr Robyn Dawson and Sally Popowski recently
travelled to the Brisbane TMA for an advanced
travel medicine workshop (see photo). A big
thank you to Dr Deb and her staff for their
valuable support during our visit. |
TMA
Brisbane Doctor in Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride
...Written by Dr Coral Johnson, Brisbane, Travel Medical Alliance
My husband and I lived in
Bangladesh 1986-1995. My husband has continued to work with
Bangladesh in a small Australian development program called
Symbiosis. Currently Symbiosis is undertaking a mammoth
project, a rickshaw relay from Sunshine Coast in Qld to
Tasmania. In 2009 AusAid put up some funding for groups to
come up with a project to increase Australians' awareness of
Millennium Development Goals and global poverty.
Spanning ten weeks and five states and territories, the
Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride will launch some 400 Aussie
rickshaw wallahs on a 2000-kilometer quest to raise
awareness about global poverty. The ride was launched last
Wednesday at Eumundi markets and was ridden into the mall in
Brisbane Friday 16th July by some of the Qld Reds players.
The message is simple: alleviating global poverty is
achievable through people powered change. It happens
when people like you, people who care, decide to take
action.
Poverty is not a problem to be solved by one single approach
such as giving aid: many causes must be addressed
simultaneously. Having identified the main causes of
poverty, the United Nations proposed the following eight
Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs to combat poverty at
its roots.
In Bangladesh, Symbiosis is part of the effort to achieve
these goals. By responding to the needs of those with whom
it works, Symbiosis helps those who live on the fringes of
Bangladesh society to overcome extreme poverty. To see how
Symbiosis is addressing these goals check out our website,
www.aussierickshaw.org.
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Here are the
Millenium Development Goals
-
Eradicate
Extreme Poverty and Hunger
-
Achieve
Universal Primary Education
-
Promote Gender
Equality and Empower Women
-
Reduce Child
Mortality
-
Improve Maternal
Health
-
Combat HIV/AIDS,
Malaria and Other Diseases
-
Ensure
Environmental Sustainability
-
Develop a Global
Partnership for Development
-
Eradicate
Extreme Poverty and Hunger
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Target 1: Halve, between 1990
and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than
$1 a day
Target 2: Achieve full and productive employment and decent
work for all, including women and young people
Target 3: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of
people who suffer from hunger
School Visits
The Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride
will be stopping at schools along the way. If you have
connections with a school along the route who may like to
host a visit, please let us know through the website. Having
authentic Bangladeshi rickshaws come to your school as part
of the 2000km journey is certain to raise questions among
the students. It will provide your school with a great
catalyst to explore issues of global citizenship.
A visit from Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride team could
include:
-
A short assembly
presentation to help students explore the Millennium
Development Goals as a powerful framework to dismantle
global poverty.
-
Speakers from Bangladesh who
have their own inspiring stories to tell about grappling
with poverty in their own country.
-
Two short films about
rickshaws and Bangladesh, and the Millennium Development
Goals and the work of Symbiosis. The films could be used
for a whole school presentation or as part of a lesson
to enrich students.
-
A package of support
materials (including a DVD copy of the videos and lesson
plans) for teachers to use prior to the visit or as
follow up.
-
An opportunity for students
to have a close look at or even have a ride in a genuine
Bangladeshi cycle rickshaw.
-
On request, information
about ways of supporting the work of Symbiosis, should
your school wish to do so.
My Ride
Monday 19th July I participated
in the ride. Along with my co-rider we rode towards
Dreamworld. As you will see from the photo, we had a police
escort and a little assistance with the first incline but
then were on our own. The steering of the rickshaw is very
sensitive and as the young guys we handed over to learnt the
hard way, it is almost impossible to steer when it gets a
pace up. They were clocked by the police car at 20kph going
downhill right before they landed in the ditch and broke the
left axle and back wheel!
You can follow the progress of the rickshaw on the website
www.aussierickshaw.org each day. I highly recommend the
school program and the Bangladeshi folk who are sharing
their stories.
Late Breaker
Deep-Vein
Thrombosis (DVT)
The death from deep-vein
thrombosis (DVT) of a 36-year-old passenger on a
transatlantic flight has provided a frightening
reminder of the risks of taking
sleeping pills on aircraft, particularly when
travelling long-haul.
Read more here.
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