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2010-01-06 10:36:23 - Epidemic Hazard - Australia EDIS CODE: EH-20100106-24452-AUS
Date & Time: 2010-01-06 10:36:23 [UTC]
Area: Australia, State of Queensland, Agnes Water, Gladstone Event exciting : Transmission from bat to human
Number of Infected person(s): 3
Not confirmed information! Description: Three men are receiving medical treatment after being bitten by a bat infected with the potentially deadly lyssavirus in central Queensland. The incident happened yesterday at a conservation park at Agnes Water near Gladstone. In each case, the bat swooped from a tree and bit the men on the head. It is understood the bat has been destroyed. Queensland Health says it will closely monitor the three men and acting chief health officer Dr Christine Selvey says the men have received medical treatment. "The prevention actually prevents the virus from replicating and travelling to their brain and therefore they don't get any symptoms at all," he said. "They don't get any disease, the prevention actually stops the virus from being able to travel up and infect the brain." Dr Selvey says treatment has been effective in preventing the disease in humans. "They may not necessarily have been infected but certainly there's a reasonable risk that they have been," she said. "Those antibodies are delivered at the site where the virus may have been introduced by the bite, and then there's a series of five vaccinations that are given over the following month." Lyssavirus has killed two people since it was identified in 1996.
The name of Hazard: Lyssavirus
Species: Human
Status: Suspected
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