A child has been confirmed to have the mosquito-borne virus being found in pigs and humans along Australia’s eastern seaboard.
They were on Monday being treated in a Victorian hospital after being initially taken to the intensive care unit after being infected with Japanese encephalitis.
A man who was on Friday in intensive care with “a highly probable” case of the virus has now had his infection confirmed.
He remains there and is now in a serious condition, after being listed as stable three days ago.
“Both people are residents of the NSW-Victoria border region – a man from the Corowa
area and a child from the Wentworth area in the far south west of NSW,” NSW Health said.
“They are both currently being treated in hospitals in Victoria.”
“Several more people in NSW are undergoing further testing, and more cases are
expected to be confirmed over the coming days and weeks.”
The development comes after Agriculture Minister David Littleproud warned Japanese encephalitis was becoming a “real threat” on Monday after it spread across more pig farms at the weekend.
The number of piggeries with confirmed cases had increased from 14 on Friday to 21 as of Monday morning.
They included 13 in NSW, one in Queensland, six in Victoria and one in South Australia.
Speaking on ABC’s Radio National on Monday morning, Mr Littleproud said vaccines were being distributed to high-risk areas.
“The fact that it has effectively spread right across the eastern seaboard and into South Australia says that this is a real threat that we need to take seriously,” Mr Littleproud said.
“We already have a small quantity of vaccines for this here in Australia and they’ve been distributed.
“There’s been another tranche that has come in, there’ll be another one that will be brought in as well.”
The unfolding outbreak of the virus in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA has been declared a communicable disease incident of national significance.
It can cause severe neurological illness with headaches, convulsions and reduced consciousness in some cases.
It spreads by mosquitoes carrying it from either pigs or water birds, but it doesn’t transmit from animal to animal, or animal to human, or human to human.
People can’t catch it from eating pork.
Mr Littleproud said people should take precautions to avoid being bitten in areas with high mosquito activity in eastern Australia.
“We need to be vigilant and need to understand particularly those in high risk areas in the region in and around piggeries,” he said.
“’The best thing you can do to arm yourself without a vaccine is really to use as much repellent as you possibly can.
“They can also have clothing that covers up most of most of their arms and legs and basically remain vigilant.
He noted that while the virus wasn’t serious in many cases, it did have the potential to become deadly.
“A large, very large numbexjmtzywr of people who do contract it, it doesn’t become serious,” he said.
Mr Littleproud said people also needed to be on the lookout for symptoms.
“It’ll be when they start to become sick and there’s some symptoms there,” he said.
“They are very much like flu, stiff neck, you start to get fever, you vomit and basically headaches.
“So it’s important to present yourself to health officials as early as you possibly can.
“And that way assessments can be made and tests can be done and that’s as important for the rest of the community, as it is about the individual themselves and getting healthcare.”
