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Speaker 1: But I do want to take your cross and find

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Speaker 1: out a little bit more about the fact that NT

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Speaker 1: Health is warning Territorians well and visitors to be on

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Speaker 1: high alert Familia doss following the detection of three cases

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Speaker 1: in the Greater Darwin region. Now joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line is NT Health Center for Disease Control Director doctor

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Speaker 1: Vicki Krass. Good morning to you, Good morning, Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning, Dr Krass. Now we

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Speaker 1: know that there has indeed been these three cases detected.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit more about them.

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Speaker 2: Well, we always assume that in the wet season we

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Speaker 2: are going to get melod cases because we have this

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Speaker 2: pathogen which causes maleo dosis I'm environmental pathogen. And we

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Speaker 2: have had three, as you've said, One actually was a

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Speaker 2: visitor who went into state was diagnosed by a doctor

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Speaker 2: who had actually trained in the NT so it was

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Speaker 2: familiar with maleo doosis. It is important that our doctors

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Speaker 2: throughout the country know about the presence of melodosis up

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Speaker 2: here and that your visitors or newcomers to the ANTI

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Speaker 2: understand about this disease melodosis. And the other two were

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Speaker 2: actually Anti residents, Darwin residents who were diagnosed here, So

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Speaker 2: we're really just making it's the wet season. We look

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Speaker 2: outside and we see very much it's here. We feel

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Speaker 2: that this will be a La Nina year, which means

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Speaker 2: that there'll be heavier rainfall and that often we get

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Speaker 2: more cases when we have that weather situation. So we

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Speaker 2: really want people to be aware of the disease. Newcomers

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Speaker 2: to know about it, and visitors to be told as well,

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Speaker 2: and to give some messages about how to protect yourself

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Speaker 2: from the disease.

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Speaker 1: So that can you remind our listeners to those who

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Speaker 1: don't know much about meliodosis, what exactly is it?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a bactery that lives deep in the soil.

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Speaker 2: After drenching rains, it comes to the top of the

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Speaker 2: soil and top of water collections and there it can

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Speaker 2: be aerosolized as well. But the main way of being

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Speaker 2: contaminated from this bacteria and having it cause disease is

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Speaker 2: through cuts and sores in your skin. It can also

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Speaker 2: be inhaled when there's really windy conditions, but it's really

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Speaker 2: keeping your skin intact and or if you do have

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Speaker 2: surce to make sure they're cleaned well and bandage so

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Speaker 2: We really encourage people to wear shoes so that they

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Speaker 2: don't have cuts on their feet, and certainly if they're

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Speaker 2: working outside, waterproof footwear if they can. And if you're

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Speaker 2: doing laboring or working in your garden that you wear gloves.

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Speaker 2: What you want to do is keep your skin intact

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Speaker 2: so you don't have these entry points for this soil germ.

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Speaker 1: Now, in terms of in terms of you know, who

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Speaker 1: might be more susceptible, are there more like are there

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Speaker 1: people that are more risk than others?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that's the other message that we want to

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Speaker 2: get across. You can do things to protect yourself, but

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Speaker 2: there are certain people who are even more at risk,

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Speaker 2: and probably the top of the list there are people

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Speaker 2: with diabetes, also, people who over use alcohol, people with

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Speaker 2: chronic conditions like chronic liver or lung or renal disease,

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Speaker 2: and people who are on drugs that suppress their immune

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Speaker 2: system like store steroids or other drugs that they might

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Speaker 2: be having for cancer treatment. So that that group particularly

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Speaker 2: have to be careful and also we advise that they

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Speaker 2: not go out and windy, stormy, presy, chronic conditions and

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Speaker 2: so Vicky, what can.

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Speaker 1: We do to really make sure that we protect ourselves.

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously being aware is a good start.

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Speaker 2: What do we need to do though, So as I said,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're the gloves. When you're working outside and

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Speaker 2: with soil or surface water, make sure your feet are

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Speaker 2: well covered and protected so they don't get cuts and sores.

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Speaker 2: It will should be doing for instance, high pressure hosing,

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Speaker 2: wear a mask because that will aerosolize the soil or sir,

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Speaker 2: it's water. So these are things that people can do.

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Speaker 2: The other thing is the final thing is if you

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Speaker 2: haven't prevented it, to make sure that you possibly recognize

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Speaker 2: the early signs. And the most common presentation is pneumonia

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Speaker 2: or a lung infection, so a fever, cough, shortness of breath,

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Speaker 2: but you actually can get this germ anywhere in your body.

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Speaker 2: It often causes abscess. So you know, a fever that

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Speaker 2: you don't know why should be investigated and you should

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Speaker 2: seek medical care.

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Speaker 1: Well NT Health Center for Disease Controlled Director doctor Vicki

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Speaker 1: Krauss I always appreciate your time. Thank you so very

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Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're very welcome.

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Speaker 1: Thank you