The threat of the brain disease Japanese encephalitis reaching Australia
intensified last week when a 12-year-old boy from the Torres Strait island of
Badu became infected. Australian health authorities have feared for some time
that the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes, will spread southwards from
Papua New Guinea via the Torres Strait islands
(This Week, 28 February, p 5).
Vaccination efforts and mosquito eradication programmes on Badu have been
stepped up.
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