Australia - Japanese Encephalitis 2022

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Source: https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/japanese-encephalitis-virus-jev/about

Current status


For information about JEV and animals visit the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment website.

As at 18 May 2022:

There are 42 human cases of JEV in Australia

29 have been confirmed with definitive laboratory evidence:

• New South Wales (13)
• Queensland (2)
• South Australia (4)
• Victoria (10)

13 are probable cases where the person has been linked epidemiologically and/or has symptoms of the disease and has laboratory suggestive evidence*:

• Queensland (3)
• South Australia (5)
• Victoria (4)
• NSW (1)

* laboratory suggestive evidence is strongly indicative of JEV but cannot entirely rule out other related flaviviruses like Murray Valley Encephalitis (MVE).

Sadly, 4 people have been reported to have died as a result of JEV. One in New South Wales, one in South Australia, one in Victoria and one in Queensland.

 

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Source: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/20220523_00.aspx

NSW records its second death of person with Japanese Encephalitis
23 May 2022

NSW Health has recorded a second death of a person with Japanese encephalitis.

Sadly, NSW Health can confirm the man in his 60s from the Corowa area, who was diagnosed with Japanese encephalitis virus in early March, died at Albury Base Hospital on Friday 20 May.

To date a total of 13 NSW residents have been infected with JE and two have died. While evidence shows mosquito numbers have declined, it remains important that people throughout the state continue to take steps to avoid mosquito bites.

Since the first notification of Japanese encephalitis in late February 2022, NSW Health has been working closely with local health districts and primary health networks in affected areas to coordinate vaccination efforts.

This includes working with GPs and other relevant stakeholders to ensure all those currently at highest risk of exposure to Japanese encephalitis are able to access government-funded vaccine.

People considered higher risk for exposure include workers in piggeries, animal transport, veterinarians and students working with pigs, laboratory workers handling Japanese encephalitis, entomologists and others engaging in animal and mosquito trapping for surveillance. NSW Health encourages people in these groups to talk to their GP about getting a JE vaccine...

 

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Source: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/na...ml?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

Japanese Encephalitis death in Queensland confirmed amid quiet spread
By Stuart Layt
May 26, 2022 — 3.31pm

As NSW recorded the latest death from Japanese Encephalitis in Australia this week, it has come to light that Queensland has also recorded a death from the disease, but at the very beginning of the current outbreak.

Queensland Health confirmed to Brisbane Times on Thursday a person died from JEV in Queensland in February this year, but has not confirmed any other details of the patient...

 

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Source: https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/japanese-encephalitis-virus-jev/about#current-status

As at 1 June 2022:

There are 40 human cases of JEV in Australia

30 have been confirmed with definitive laboratory evidence:

• New South Wales (13)
• Queensland (2)
• South Australia (5)
• Victoria (10)

10 are probable cases where the person has been linked epidemiologically and/or has symptoms of the disease and has laboratory suggestive evidence*:

• Queensland (3)
• South Australia (4)
• Victoria (3)

* laboratory suggestive evidence is strongly indicative of JEV but cannot entirely rule out other related flaviviruses like Murray Valley Encephalitis (MVE).

Sadly, 5 people have been reported to have died as a result of JEV. Two in New South Wales, one in South Australia, one in Victoria and one in Queensland.

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Source: https://ntindependent.com.au/nt-health-warns-public-as-more-cases-of-japanese-encephalitis-detected/


NT Health warns public as more cases of Japanese encephalitis detected
by Independent Staff | Jun 6, 2022 | News | 0 comments

NT Health is urging Territorians and visitors to take steps to protect themselves from Japanese encephalitis (JE) after an increased number of feral pigs have tested positive for the disease in the Top End in recent days.

Medical Entomology Unit director Nina Kurucz warned that JE is a serious disease carried by mosquitoes capable of infecting humans and animals.

“The highest risk period for being bitten by an infected mosquito is after sundown within five kilometres of wetlands where feral pigs and water birds potentially infected with JE are present,” Ms Kurucz said.

She said that 44 feral pigs infected with JE have been recorded in Victoria Daly, Litchfield, Marrakai-Douglas Daly and Cox-Daly region and the Tiwi Islands since March this year...

 

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Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/nt-two-new-cases-japanese-encephalitis/101293450

Two cases of Japanese encephalitis confirmed in the Northern Territory
By Thomas Morgan
Posted 4h ago

Key points:

NT Health has recorded two cases of Japanese encephalitis
One was a man in his 70s who caught the virus in May 2021
It brings the total case count to three, after a woman died with the virus last year

In a statement released on Tuesday, NT Health confirmed a child in the Top End had been infected with the virus after becoming symptomatic in June.

It said the child had made a "good recovery", however was characterised as a current case...

 

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Source: https://english.news.cn/20220818/18555b7c8ff943c58b148dea28e14c7a/c.html

Australian researchers trace Japanese encephalitis in nation to early 2021 outbreak
Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2022-08-18 18:55:45

SYDNEY, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Researchers from the Menzies School of Health Research have investigated an early case of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) from early 2021, which could provide clues into how the virus has spread into Australia, and what prevalence will be into the future.

The case study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, was a report on a "sentinel case" in a 45-year-old resident of the Tiwi islands, a group of islands belonging to Australia and 80 kilometers off the mainland's northern coast.

Lead author on the project and Director of Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Menzies School of Health Research, Professor Bart Currie, told Xinhua on Thursday that by zooming in on a singular initial case it allows epidemiologists to reverse engineer how an outbreak occurs.

"So, by recognizing that this case is related to the cases in southern Australia gives us a timeframe, which is very different from what we originally thought back in early 2022," said Currie.

The first cases of JEV in Australia's eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) were reported in March 2022. Through genomic sequencing, Currie and his colleagues were able to link the outbreak to this initial case a whole year prior.

Before this, Australia had not had locally acquired cases of JEV since the mid-1990s...

 

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Source: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2207004

Japanese Encephalitis in Australia — A Sentinel Case
August 18, 2022
N Engl J Med 2022; 387:661-662
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2207004

To the Editor:

On March 4, 2022, Japanese encephalitis was identified as a “communicable disease incident of national significance” in Australia. This notification followed the detection of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in mummified, stillborn, and weak newborn piglets from multiple commercial piggeries across four temperate southern Australian states, with concomitant recognition of human cases of Japanese encephalitis. As of August 1, 2022, a total of 40 cases of infection that had led to 5 deaths had been reported.1

In 1995 and 1998, in the tropical far north of Australia in Queensland, 5 cases of Japanese encephalitis (and 2 deaths) caused by genotype 2 were identified. It was hypothesized that this outbreak resulted from the incursion of cyclonic-wind–transported JEV-infected mosquitoes from Papua New Guinea.2 Since 1998, no further endemic cases of Japanese encephalitis had been detected in Australia until a case in February 2021 that resulted in death. This case appeared to be a sentinel human case of the current outbreak that was identified a year later at a location that was more than 3000 km to the south.
Figure 1. Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Histologic Analysis in the Sentinel Patient...

 

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Japanese encephalitis vaccines expanded as one in 11 people tested show infection signs
ABC Goulburn Murray
/ By Katherine Smyrk, Courtney Howe, and Callum Marshall
Posted 3h ago
3 hours ago
Vaccinations for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) are ramping up in communities on both sides of the NSW-Victoria border, after a new study found about one in 11 people surveyed had been infected.
Key points:

A NSW study has found one in 11 people surveyed had Japanese encephalitis antibodies
Eligibility for vaccination against the virus has been expanded in both NSW and Victoria
The virus is likely to re-emerge this spring and summer

The NSW Health study collected blood samples from volunteers in Corowa, Temora, Griffith, Dubbo and Balranald.

Out of 917 people who were tested, 80 people showed antibodies indicating past infection with JEV that would not have been acquired in another country.

"We knew there'd be more cases we didn't know about, but this work was really important in showing just the extent of it and how spread it is across the region as well," April Roberts-Witteveen, manager of infectious disease surveillance at the Murrumbidgee and Southern NSW Public Health Unit, said...

 

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Source: http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2022-10/14/content_78465242.htm

South Australians warned of increased Japanese encephalitis threat
Xinhua, October 14, 2022

CANBERRA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Australians have been warned of an increased risk of mosquito-borne diseases amid wet weather.

South Australia (SA) Health on Friday announced the state's vaccination program for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) would be expanded to prepare for a bumper mosquito season after higher-than-average Spring rainfall.

Under the expansion, thousands of residents of the River Murray area will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

Spread to humans through mosquito bites, JEV can cause life-threatening brain swelling.

There have been nine confirmed virus cases in SA in 2022 and two deaths...

 

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Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/pat...ephalitis-outbreak-found-20221128-p5c1ri.html

Patient zero of Japanese encephalitis outbreak found in Darwin
By Liam Mannix
Updated November 30, 2022 — 12.13pmfirst published at 12.05pm

A 45-year-old Tiwi Islands woman has been identified as patient zero for the small but sprawling Japanese encephalitis outbreak that erupted thousands of kilometres south, in Victoria and NSW this year.

And a new estimate suggests the key mosquito species thought to transmit the virus – which is common in Asia and can result in severe disease and death – is present across the entire eastern seaboard, including in densely populated cities.

The Tiwi Islands woman’s mysterious death in February 2021 went largely unnoticed outside the Northern Territory.

It was “a bit of a curiosity”, said CSIRO virologist Dr David Williams, who led the team that linked the case to the outbreak.

But then flooding rains and summer heat created the perfect environment for the virus to spread south. “You just needed a match,” Williams said.

It was not until a year later, when piggeries more than 3000 kilometres south started reporting large numbers of stillborn piglets, that health authorities in the southern states took notice...

 

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Source: https://www.southcoastregister.com.au/story/8029530/japanese-encephalitis-case-detected-in-nsw/

Japanese encephalitis case detected in NSW
By Maureen Dettre
Updated December 21 2022 - 10:33pm, first published 10:30pm

The first summer case of Japanese encephalitis has been identified in the central west of NSW.

The virus is spread through mosquito bites and was diagnosed in an older man from Lake Cargelligo, who is likely to have acquired the infection early in November...

 

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Source: https://www.sheppnews.com.au/news/japanese-encephalitis-bites-in-campaspe/

Japanese encephalitis bites in Campaspe
By McPherson Media Group
Jan 3, 2023

A Campaspe Shire resident has been diagnosed with Japanese encephalitis — the first case of the virus detected in Victoria this mosquito season.

Authorities have not released details about the person’s condition.

Recent weather conditions have been favourable for mosquito breeding and biting, and mosquito numbers are high across many parts of Victoria.

The Victorian Department of Health said on December 30 there was ongoing concern about JE virus transmission in riverine regions, which had been hit hard by flooding during recent months in towns including Echuca and Rochester and along the Murray River...