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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks.

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Speaker 2: That'd be it was such sad news. A twelve year

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Speaker 2: old Sarmon boy died in Auckland Starship Hospital last week

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Speaker 2: after contracting dingy fever. So he'd been really sick in

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Speaker 2: some more and then was transferred to New Zealand. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: someone media confirmed I think a day after he was

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Speaker 2: flown to New Zealand that he had died. So we

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Speaker 2: want to know a bit more about dingy fever and

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Speaker 2: the kind of risk that it can present in this

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Speaker 2: part of the world. Doctor Brian Betty is here with

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Speaker 2: us this morning. Kilder Brian, thank you for being with us.

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Speaker 3: Ja.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean obviously this is a really you know,

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Speaker 2: really sad case, just just twelve years old. But for

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Speaker 2: those who don't know anything about dingy fever, what actually

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Speaker 2: is it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, look at something we do need to be

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Speaker 3: aware of because we often travel to the Pacific Islands

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Speaker 3: and so it's a mosquito spread virus, so you get

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Speaker 3: it from mosquito bites. So when you get bitten, dingy

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Speaker 3: fever can happen if that mosquito is infected with dingy fever.

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Speaker 3: Now it occurs with the small mosquitos that occur during

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Speaker 3: daylight or fly around during the day. Now, this is

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Speaker 3: very different from mosquitos that cause malaria, which occur early

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Speaker 3: morning or early evening, So it's a daytime mosquito that

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Speaker 3: actually causes the problem. Now we know it's endemic in

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Speaker 3: the Pacific Islands, so it tends to float around the

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Speaker 3: Pacific Islands and every two to five years it tends

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Speaker 3: to be a major outbreak of it, and that's actually

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Speaker 3: happening at the moment. It's Samoa tolerant Fiji in particular.

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Speaker 3: Now it is becoming more common around the world with

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Speaker 3: climate change. This is what's really interesting and not talked

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Speaker 3: about at the moment. So we've seen it in more

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Speaker 3: parts of the world. In fact, you can actually get

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Speaker 3: to North Queensland now and as temperatures become warmer, more humid,

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Speaker 3: mosquitos tend to spread. Dingy fever tends to spread, and

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Speaker 3: there's about four and a half million cases a year

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Speaker 3: around the world at the moment. Now the question has

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Speaker 3: could have reached New Zealand one day with climate change?

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Speaker 3: The answer is actually yes, and it's probably one of

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Speaker 3: the things we don't talk about enough in terms of

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Speaker 3: the spread of these types of diseases. So, yeah, endemic

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Speaker 3: in the Pacific. It's certainly an issue at the moment

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Speaker 3: which has led to this very tragic outcome.

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Speaker 2: So what happens if you've bitten by a mosquito that

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Speaker 2: has FEV? Do you automatically?

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Speaker 3: Well, not always. Now, it can be asymptomatic and some

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Speaker 3: people can get very mild illness. But what can happen

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Speaker 3: is is generally the infectional start to show itself four

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Speaker 3: to ten days after the mosquito bite. Now, the typical

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Speaker 3: symptoms are very high fever, severe headache, often pain between

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Speaker 3: the eyes, and very severe muscle or joint pain. And

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Speaker 3: colloquially it's been referred to as break bone fever. Some

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Speaker 3: of your listers may have heard of that phrase before,

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Speaker 3: and it can cause nausea and vomiting, the skin rash. Now,

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Speaker 3: typically it will get to better, get improved, and get

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Speaker 3: better after one to two weeks. Now, however, there is

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Speaker 3: a very severe form of it called dingy hemorrhagic fever. Now,

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Speaker 3: this typically occurs after the second infection, so you've been

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Speaker 3: acted once. What happens the immune system gets very primed

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Speaker 3: to the dingy fever. You get a second bite in

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Speaker 3: the second infection, and the immune system overreacts to it

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Speaker 3: and you get this very dangerous condition called hemorrhagic dingy fever,

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Speaker 3: and that can lead to very severe complications and in

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Speaker 3: some cases death. So yes, the second one that can

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Speaker 3: often be a real real problem if you get bitten.

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Speaker 2: So there's no vaccine to prevent the disease. What do

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Speaker 2: you do? How do you treat it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, so this is really important. So no, there

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Speaker 3: is no vaccine that you can prevent it, So you

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Speaker 3: can't go and see your doctor and get a vaccine

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Speaker 3: to prevent it. Bengy fever, there's no treatment, so there's

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Speaker 3: no antiviral treatment. So the only treatment that's available is

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Speaker 3: really supportive. So in mild cases, it's things like paracetamol,

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Speaker 3: plenty of fluids, and bed rest, and the majority will

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Speaker 3: slowly get better. However, if the symptoms get very severe,

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Speaker 3: you end up seeing a doctor, and in severe cases

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Speaker 3: you'll end up in hospital for supportive treatment things like

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Speaker 3: fluids and oxygen and sometimes I see you and things.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, no treatment, and that's actually a very very

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Speaker 3: important thing to realize about. Dingky fever.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so you've just got to prevent it. How do

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Speaker 2: you do that?

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Speaker 3: Prevention is actually the way to go. So so look,

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Speaker 3: I mean, look, if you are traveling to the sub

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Speaker 3: islands and you're going to one of the resorts and things,

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Speaker 3: the rual resorts are very good at sort of keeping

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Speaker 3: mosquitos away. So they treat the grass, the areas, no

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Speaker 3: stagnant water, They do a whole lot of things to

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Speaker 3: prevent mosquitos. So it doesn't tend to be a problem.

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Speaker 3: It's going outside of the resorts into two areas where

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Speaker 3: mosquitos could be about that there is an issue. So

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Speaker 3: you have to protect yourself. So that's things like insect repellents,

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Speaker 3: especially repellents with something called deep in them, which which

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Speaker 3: stops the mosquitos. Long sleeve you know, tops or pants

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Speaker 3: are really really important, and during the day actually mosquito

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Speaker 3: yets if you're in those areas. So it's prevention and

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Speaker 3: mosquito bites are the only thing you can do, and

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Speaker 3: that's you need to be aware of.

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Speaker 2: Hey, thanks, Brian, I appreciate your time here. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: some that is fascinating and you know, it could become

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Speaker 2: even more of an issue in years to come in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand of all places, which is yeah, I concerned.

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Speaker 2: I am. There's doctor Brian Betty with us this morning.

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