Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/08/2414117.htm
Disease outbreak poses deadly threat to NT community
The Northern Territory Government has reported an outbreak of a potentially deadly disease in the Borroloola community, about 850 kilometres south-east of Darwin.
The Acute Poststreptococcal Glomerulonephritis (AGSN) has been wiped from most developed nations except for Australia, where remote Indigenous communities have the highest rates of the disease in the world.
The Menzies School of Health Research's Catherine Marshall co-authored the report and says the illness has been identified as a precursor to kidney disease.
"We think that there's a lot of cases of subclinical diseases where children may not have a lot of symptoms and I guess it's important for clinicians to be aware of the condition," she said.
"[Clinicians should] monitor children who have skin sores and also that may have blood in their urine and other symptoms of this condition."
She says the outbreak could have significant long-term effects as the illness has been identified as a precursor to chronic kidney disease.
"One of the important things is this is related to skin infections and which I think is probably in part related to the living conditions in Indigenous communities," she said.
"It's one reason why we need to sort of work and on improving the issues of overcrowding and living conditions in communities in the Northern Territory."
Disease outbreak poses deadly threat to NT community
The Northern Territory Government has reported an outbreak of a potentially deadly disease in the Borroloola community, about 850 kilometres south-east of Darwin.
The Acute Poststreptococcal Glomerulonephritis (AGSN) has been wiped from most developed nations except for Australia, where remote Indigenous communities have the highest rates of the disease in the world.
The Menzies School of Health Research's Catherine Marshall co-authored the report and says the illness has been identified as a precursor to kidney disease.
"We think that there's a lot of cases of subclinical diseases where children may not have a lot of symptoms and I guess it's important for clinicians to be aware of the condition," she said.
"[Clinicians should] monitor children who have skin sores and also that may have blood in their urine and other symptoms of this condition."
She says the outbreak could have significant long-term effects as the illness has been identified as a precursor to chronic kidney disease.
"One of the important things is this is related to skin infections and which I think is probably in part related to the living conditions in Indigenous communities," she said.
"It's one reason why we need to sort of work and on improving the issues of overcrowding and living conditions in communities in the Northern Territory."