Dengue fever is not endemic in Australia, however, we do have mosquitoes that can spread the virus and outbreaks do occur due to imported cases. Severe dengue (also known as dengue haemorrhagic fever) is a potentially lethal complication, affecting mainly children. Diagnosing it early and initiating supportive treatment can be life-saving. It’s therefore worth reminding ourselves of this important tropical infection.
This month we listen in on another webinar excerpt with Professor John McBride who presented on the topic of “Tropical Medicine”. This is part 2 of a 3 part series, where Prof McBride discusses Dengue Fever.
Professor John McBride is an Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist. He is a Professor of Medicine at the Cairns Hospital clinical school. Originally from Adelaide, he has been in north Queensland for many years.
John has major interests in the Tropical Infectious Diseases of north Queensland and the Western Pacific. After training in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in Adelaide he completed a PhD on dengue fever in Townsville before moving to Cairns. His other areas of interest include HIV in PNG and the role of male circumcision in its prevention, rickettsial infections, Leptospirosis, thermal scanning for fever, fever surveillance and the hunt for new pathogens.
Needless to say, there’s a lot to learn from Prof McBride!
You can listen to the excerpt here (14 min 30 sec):
If you missed Part 1 of this series, you can review it here.
Watch out for the final excerpts from this webinar in Part 3 later in the year.
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