FED: Native rats tested for potentially lethal disease
By Judy Skatssoon, National Medical Writer
SYDNEY, Feb 12 AAP - Native rats may be carrying a potentially lethal disease affectingworkers in northern Queensland banana plantations.
Researchers are currently trapping the rodents and testing their blood and urine todetermine which species is responsible for transmitting leptospirosis to the human population.
The study comes after at least 184 people were infected during an outbreak in northQueensland in the first half of 1999, with half requiring hospital treatment.
Leptospirosis is a debilitating disease caught from contact with infected animal urine.
It can cause hepatitis, jaundice, kidney failure, meningitis and haemorrhaging.
Queensland researchers were currently focusing on rats in the Innisfail/Tully regionto determine whether protected native species or introduced rats were the culprits, CSIROrodent researcher Dr Lyn Hinds said.
Dr Hinds, who addressed a rat conference in Canberra this week, said rats were reservoirsof the disease in many countries around the world.
The highest incidence of the disease in Australia occurs in the wet tropics aroundnorthern Queensland, particularly in banana plantations.
Bushwalkers, campers and even gardeners were also at risk of exposure.
"One of the main research questions that's being tackled at the moment is which ofthe species that are in the banana plantations are the ones that are carrying the leptospirosisdisease infecting the banana workers," she told AAP.
"We know that some of the native species up there certainly carry leptospirosis andsome of the introduced species ... but we don't know which of those species are actuallyresponsible for the infections that are getting into the human population."
Heather Robertson, the leptospirosis project officer for Queensland's Tropical PublicHealth Unit, said it would probably be several months before any results came to hand.
Leptospirosis can be effectively treated with antibiotics if caught early enough.
AAP jjs/gl/de
KEYWORD: RATS
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий