Hospital calms fears amid disease scare
Hospital calms fears amid disease scare
Friday October 17 2014, 5:00pm
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital Health Service (CHHHS), which includes Mossman Hospital, has moved to calm the waters amongst an Ebola scare and the death of a patient from complications arising from tuberculosis.
Cairns nurse Sue Kovack was tested for Ebola after arriving home from Sierra Leone and reporting a fever on October 9th, and an unnamed 32-year-old Australian woman died in Cairns Hospital on September 29 from complications secondary to tuberculosis.
It is suspected that the unnamed woman was suffering from a drug-resistant strain of the disease and had close contact with another woman who died from tuberculosis earlier.
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has caused nearly 4500 deaths and as also caused the death of one American and the infection of another in the continental United States.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis is rampant throughout Papua New Guinea, which lacks adequate public health facilities to treat the disease’s victims, some of which seek treatment in Australia by crossing the Torres Strait.
Cross-border travel between the Papua New Guinean mainland and the Australian-controlled Saibai Island, which is part of the Torres Strait, is freely permitted by a treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Despite public worry about a potential outbreak of Ebola or Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB), CHHHS has said there is a very low risk of either disease gaining a foothold in Far North Queensland.
“It is important to note that to become exposed to TB usually requires close and sustained contact with infected individuals - short-term exposure is generally not sufficient to result in infection,” said Dr Richard Gair, director of Tropical Public Health Services Cairns.
“This year, up to 30 September, there have been 119 TB cases in Queensland, of which 15 were in the CHHHS and 10 in Torres and Cape - in 2013, there were 153 notifications of TB in Queensland, 171 in 2012 and 221 in 2011. Therefore, TB notifications in 2014 are currently trending much lower than in previous years - this is a result of the strict controls for the diagnosis and treatment of TB within Australia’s borders.”
Dr Gair also said that TB is a legally notifiable condition in Queensland and throughout Australia, allowing quick and timely intervention.
A program administering the tuberculosis vaccine, known as BCG, was abandoned in the majority of the Australian population several decades ago as being no longer necessary but is still common in Indigenous communities, including the Torres Strait.
Dr Gair also said it was highly unlikely Ebola could break out in Port Douglas or Mossman, given that there were no direct flights between the region and West Africa.
“It is also important that people understand that the standard of living in West Africa is conducive to the spread of this disease,” Dr Gair said.
“While Ebola is a very serious disease, it cannot be caught through airborne transmission.
“Transmission of this disease is made easier in poverty-stricken areas due to overcrowding, overwhelmed and under-resourced health care facilities, a lack of running water to help prevent the spread of the disease and death customs that involve washing the body of the deceased.
“In the event of a suspected Ebola case, as seen at Cairns Hospital last week, the patient would be isolated and a list of their contacts compiled.
“Tropical Public Health Services Cairns knew this patient (Ms Kovack) was coming to Cairns - when she arrived home she displayed no symptoms and has since tested negative for Ebola.
“In any case, people with Ebola are not infectious until they become sick - the risk of infection is extremely low unless there has been directed exposure to bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or diarrhoea.
“There has never been a confirmed case of Ebola in Australia.”
