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Speaker 1: Now we know that there has been unfortunately a situation

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Speaker 1: where we've had a rise in cases of gastro and

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Speaker 1: rotavirus and novovirus or neurovirus. I believe it is how

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Speaker 1: you pronounce it. Infections that do cause will cause illness. Now,

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Speaker 1: one hundred and twelve cases as I as I understand,

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Speaker 1: have been recorded in the Northern Territory this year, compared

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Speaker 1: to fifty eight at the same time last year. Now,

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about the situation is well, the public health

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Speaker 1: registrar with the Center for Disease Control, doctor Felix Ho.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Doctor, Good morning, how are you Katie?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, thank you so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. Now, firstly, can you explain to us what

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Speaker 1: rhadavirus is and how do I pronounce the other one?

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Speaker 2: Is it norovirus nouavirus? That's exactly right, Katie, So no,

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Speaker 2: thanks so much for this opportunity. I think it's important

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Speaker 2: to that autootoring so about this that rotavirus and nora

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Speaker 2: IRUs causes gastron to writers or gastro and we've seen

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Speaker 2: an increase in the number of rotavirus this year which

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Speaker 2: is significantly a lot more than what we've seen the

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Speaker 2: last five years, and that's why it's so important for

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Speaker 2: our for territorians to try and prevent getting rotavirus as

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Speaker 2: much as possible. But you need the virus which causes

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Speaker 2: symptoms which includes like nausea and vomiting and diary and

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Speaker 2: stomach cramps. So not very nice things.

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Speaker 1: No, not at all. So is there particular areas of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory which have sort of been hardest heat

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Speaker 1: at this point?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so, unfortunately Central Australia and Berkley regions has had

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Speaker 2: a large number recorded and that's actually fairly it. Like

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Speaker 2: nouraviruses on, rotaviruses generally follow a bit of a seasonal

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Speaker 2: pattern and the peak incidence is around the mid to

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Speaker 2: late winter. But this year we have had a lot

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Speaker 2: more cases than normal and that's why I think it's

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Speaker 2: so important that regardless of where you are within the

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Speaker 2: territory that we take precautions to try and prevent getting

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Speaker 2: rotavirus and aauavirus.

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Speaker 1: So talk us through those numbers firstly in terms of

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Speaker 1: just how many we've had this year comparatively to the

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Speaker 1: same time last year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, Katie. So this year, we've had one hundred

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Speaker 2: and twelve cases of rotavirus to date, and that's actually

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Speaker 2: increased by ninety three percent compared to the average number

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Speaker 2: of cases, which is about like the fifty eight which

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Speaker 2: was recorded as of this time last year. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's quite a significant number.

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Speaker 1: And how do these infections then lead to gastro Yeah, so.

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Speaker 2: The most common things is that this virus, so it's

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Speaker 2: not it's not a bacteria, but this virus causes the

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Speaker 2: body to not be able to take up all the

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Speaker 2: nutrients and all the other aspects, so you end up

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Speaker 2: being dehydrated, and that's when you get this nausey and vomiting,

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Speaker 2: and that's the body's way to try and get rid

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Speaker 2: of this virus, and you have this diarrhea and stomach cramps.

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Speaker 2: Generally not great.

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Speaker 1: No, it's the worst. It is such a bad situation

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Speaker 1: to be in when you end.

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Speaker 2: Up that crook. Yeah, no, for sure, but there's definitely

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Speaker 2: steps that we can do to try and prevent it.

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Speaker 2: And we know that it happens a lot in younger children.

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Speaker 2: And there is a vaccine available for rotavirus and it's

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Speaker 2: given free for you know, children from as young as

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Speaker 2: six weeks and they gain at four months of age.

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Speaker 2: Because you know, like kids, they touch everything, they put

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Speaker 2: things into their mouths, and we want to try and

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Speaker 2: live that as best as possible and to try and

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Speaker 2: prevent that major disease or that severe gasserent writers from

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Speaker 2: actually happening.

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Speaker 1: Oh feelix, She's spot on. Kids are gross. So I've

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Speaker 1: got two of them, and they touch everything. They get

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Speaker 1: better as they get older, but they can be gross,

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Speaker 1: particularly when they're quite young. So anything that you can

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Speaker 1: do to really try to protect them, you know, because

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Speaker 1: sometimes you can wash their hands fifty times in a

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Speaker 1: day and they're still doing gross stuff.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right. But I think as adults and as

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Speaker 2: parents and we can try and instill that into kids

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Speaker 2: as soon as possible. And you know, we've just come

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Speaker 2: out of and we've still got COVID going around, so

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Speaker 2: washing hands is on the forefront of most people's minds.

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Speaker 2: But washing hands regularly with soap and warm water, especially

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Speaker 2: before and after going to the bathroom or preparing food,

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Speaker 2: that's the most important thing. But also making sure that

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Speaker 2: you know, like if we are cooking as well, making

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Speaker 2: sure that you know meat and fish and poultry are

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Speaker 2: cooked thoroughly, and not to have raw foods kind of

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Speaker 2: raw meat contaminate other foods. And if we do have

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Speaker 2: symptoms of diary and vomiting, to stay at home, so

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Speaker 2: we don't want to share this around to other people,

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Speaker 2: and we want to wait at least, you know, twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours from the last episode of diary and vomiting

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Speaker 2: before they before anyone goes back to work or school

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Speaker 2: or childcare.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so true, and such good advice. Now, Felix, tell

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Speaker 1: us in terms of cases up here in the top end,

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Speaker 1: have we had many cases here in the top end

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Speaker 1: at this stage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we kind of expect that a lot of

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Speaker 2: this this gastro wave, I guess to eventually come up

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Speaker 2: the territor come up to the top end. There is

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Speaker 2: no seasonal here up in the north, in the top

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Speaker 2: end and the tropical region, there's no seasonal pattern, so

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Speaker 2: it can be unpredictable. So that's why we should all

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Speaker 2: be on the lookout for these size of symptoms. And

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Speaker 2: if we do have gastro, to isolate yourself, to wash

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Speaker 2: your hands and make sure that we don't contaminate other people.

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Speaker 1: Now, doctor Felix ho, we've just had a message come

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Speaker 1: through and please you know it's you may or may

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Speaker 1: not be aware, but somebody's just messaged through and said, Katie,

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Speaker 1: there's been an outbreak of scarlet fever as well. Do

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Speaker 1: you know if that is the case or I didn't

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Speaker 1: even realize scarlet fever was something that still.

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Speaker 2: Was around, Yes, scala feva's around on I'm personally not

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Speaker 2: sure about that. Yeah, the case, so I could definitely

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Speaker 2: find out, but I am unfortunately not too sure about

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Speaker 2: that one.

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Speaker 1: No, that's all right, we can we can try and

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Speaker 1: get some more detail. Well, I really appreciate you coming

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Speaker 1: on the show this morning and having a chat to us.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Felix Ho of course, the public health registrar with

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Speaker 1: the Center of Disease Control, thank you very much for

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Speaker 1: joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks well, thank you so much for us. I'm Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you