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Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolf and three point sixty online at Mix

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Speaker 1: one O four nine dot com. Visitors and Territorians are

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Speaker 1: being urged to protect themselves from mosquito bites as Murray

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Speaker 1: Valley in cephalitis virus and the kunjin virus active activity

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Speaker 1: have been detected in the top end and also in

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Speaker 1: the Barkley regions. Now joining us on the line to

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Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about this is medical

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Speaker 1: entomologists Bill Pettitt. Good morning to you, Bill.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you not too bad?

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Speaker 2: Bill?

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Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit more about what has been

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Speaker 1: detected in the top end and the Barkley regions.

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Speaker 2: Well, the top end, there's anyone who species the top

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Speaker 2: end would know that we've got mosquitoes in quite quite

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Speaker 2: a lot of ours, quite a lot of our seasons

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Speaker 2: year round, and in amongst all of that, we've got

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Speaker 2: very large active populations of wallabies, we've got water birds.

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Speaker 2: It's a big, dynamic ecosystem. And what sometimes happens is

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Speaker 2: viruses that affect animals occasionally come through mosquitoes and end

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Speaker 2: up in humans. And the viruses like mb and kungin

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Speaker 2: virus are two of those viruses that are normally a

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Speaker 2: water bird virus, and occasionally humans in our travels and

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Speaker 2: our camping go in close to those habitats and in

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Speaker 2: counter of the mosquitoes that have been biting those birds

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Speaker 2: and occasionally become infective.

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Speaker 1: And bill are they I mean, are these viruses quite

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Speaker 1: sort of dangerous to humans or what are some of

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Speaker 1: the side effects.

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Speaker 2: Marray's alien kept vitises are rare, very rare virus in humans,

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Speaker 2: but for those unlucky enough to get it, there may

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Speaker 2: be two cases across the top end in any given years.

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Speaker 2: It's rare, but the ramifications of someone getting married's alien

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Speaker 2: kept ritis can it can cause death about the court

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Speaker 2: of the cases. It can cause a brain injury and

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Speaker 2: a cord of cases, and probably half of the cases

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Speaker 2: would recover quite quite fully or almost fully. But it's

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Speaker 2: a virus in humans, but it's we're a dead end

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Speaker 2: host for that virus. We're not. The virus isn't adapted

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Speaker 2: to replicating in us. We don't get very by remix,

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Speaker 2: so that mosquito's biting an then the case human case

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Speaker 2: wouldn't necessarily become intected and intect anyone else. So it

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Speaker 2: really is a we're a dead end host an accidental

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Speaker 2: host for these viruses, but the ramifications can be goodness.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And then when you talk about the Kunjin virus,

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Speaker 1: is it more common or is it again quite a

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Speaker 1: rare one.

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Speaker 2: It's it's quite quite rare, and the symptoms are less

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Speaker 2: severe than m ve jin in Australia is related to

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Speaker 2: the more severe disease over in America, the West Nile virus,

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Speaker 2: which is responsible for quite a lot of human illness

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Speaker 2: and death. But over in Australia it's background levels. It's

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Speaker 2: uncommon in humans. But what it is, it is a

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Speaker 2: most years, but not in very high numbers. Our other

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Speaker 2: viruses like roster river virus are far more common than

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Speaker 2: they're coming out of animals like wallabies and dusky water

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Speaker 2: rauts and other small small mammals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they go, Bill, what are the best things that

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Speaker 1: we need to do to try and protect ourselves.

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Speaker 2: So given that we've got an alert, we've got these

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Speaker 2: sentinel flocks of chickens that are in various areas through

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Speaker 2: the top end down through the barkley, and they give

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Speaker 2: us a bit of an early warning that the virus

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Speaker 2: is circulating, which is why I'm talking to you today.

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Speaker 2: Gives us about a four week lead. The birds are

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Speaker 2: far more sensitive to it than us, and as soon

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Speaker 2: as they serra convert then we're able to give this

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Speaker 2: notice that the viruses are circulating. But the basic precautions

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Speaker 2: covering up at night, using repellent if you're camping. We've

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Speaker 2: got a lot of people going out camping in the

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Speaker 2: next few weekends. The weather's improving. We've got a long

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Speaker 2: weekend coming up. It's just to be min call it.

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Speaker 2: Avoid the mosquito bites, especially after dark. You've got more

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Speaker 2: mosquitos coming in about half an hour to one hour

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Speaker 2: after dark. Just make sure you've got mosquito cruf accommodation,

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Speaker 2: you've got repellents. You've got maybe the repellent devices like

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Speaker 2: thermo cells or the Bagon pulse repellents that you can

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Speaker 2: buy in in Woolworth. They're very, very good when you're camping.

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Speaker 2: Just generally avoid being bitten by mosquitos whenever you can.

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Speaker 1: And Bill, are there people who are at a greater

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Speaker 1: risk of getting these illnesses than others? Or is it

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Speaker 1: really just I mean to put it bluntly, is it

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Speaker 1: really just a luck thing? No?

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Speaker 2: But really it's a luck thing. It's some people say

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Speaker 2: they're not bitten by mosquitos, but in fact, most of

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Speaker 2: us are bitten by mosquitos. Some people just react more

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Speaker 2: to the bite than other people. So in general everyone,

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Speaker 2: even if you're a long term top ender, if you're

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Speaker 2: getting bitten by enough mosquitoes and you're unlucky enough to

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Speaker 2: be bitten by one of these that's infected with a

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Speaker 2: birdborn or a wallaby born virus, you may well end

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Speaker 2: up as the accidental host and become quite ill the

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Speaker 2: arthritic joints in the case of the Ross River. You

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Speaker 2: can end up with like a quite quite a number

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Speaker 2: of symptoms with any of these, any of these viruses.

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Speaker 1: Bill, this might be a strange question, but are our animals,

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Speaker 1: like our cats and dogs also susceptible to these viruses?

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Speaker 2: Not so much. And if they were being accidental hosts, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: the reservoir, especially for these for MV and qungen is

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Speaker 2: water birds and then us as an accidental posts. It's

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Speaker 2: an unlikely scenario and not something that's that's commonly supported.

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Speaker 1: Well, Bill, I really appreciate you coming on this morning

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Speaker 1: and giving us a bit more detail about this. I've

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Speaker 1: just had an insider get in contact with me and

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Speaker 1: asked me, are you running in cross country championships this weekend?

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Speaker 2: Bell? Absolutely, and in the evening I'll be using repellent.

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Speaker 1: Good on you. I know that you are a very

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Speaker 1: fast runner, as is your daughter. As I understand, so.

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Speaker 2: So good, I've got to target on my back. You

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Speaker 2: can't wait for pass me.

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Speaker 1: I love it, mate, I love a bit of healthy

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Speaker 1: competitiveness amongst families. I'm the same in ourse. Good on you, Bill,

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: That is a medical entomologist there, Bill Pettett, and he's

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Speaker 1: also a very fast runner. For those of you out

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Speaker 1: there that don't know