Australian BioSecurity CRC for Emerging Infectious Diseases has released their latest report on threats to Australia emphasising the risks posed by their identified “ring of fire” of regional SARS hotspots.

It additionally addresses various other infectious diseases – affecting animals and humans – including:

• the potential risk of the Asian tiger mosquito (a carrier of dengue fever and chikungunya) which could spread to Australia and potentially even spread to Melbourne.
• the Hendra virus, a “cousin” of the Nipah virus (found in Asia), which is confined to Australia and is carried by flying foxes but can infect horses and humans with a 50% mortality, but fortunately, the current strains are not very contagious and humans are infected from sick horses and not directly from bats.
• koala retrovirus which causes an AIDS-like illness in koalas now infects almost 100% of koalas in Queensland and 25% of those in Victoria
• Australian piggery workers at risk of Strept. suis infections which have only affected 3 Australians to date but an outbreak in China infected over 200 resulting in heart valve infections, toxic shock syndrome, meningitis and pneumonia

See full report in pdf.

More good reasons to live in Melbourne – mosquitoes don’t do well in drought conditions or the Melbourne climate, but presumably we still need more negative pressure rooms as the SARS threats remain.