Dr Steven Graves, of the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle – Audio Interview
Australian health experts are taking serious lessons from an outbreak of Q fever in goats and people in the Netherlands in 2010.
The disease spread from milking goats, with infected straw spread over tulip fields, and dust blowing over the local community.
It took two years to realise that it was Q fever, by which time 12 people died and 4,000 were sick, as the vets hadn’t warned the local doctors to test for it.
Dr Steven Graves, of the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, says all Australian regional doctors should watch out for symptoms.
“If somebody presents with a fever or pneumonia, they might have Q fever,” he said.
“You don’t have to have direct contact with animals. Fifty per cent of the cases I see the person’s got no contact with animals, it just comes through the air.”
About 400 people get Q fever a year in Australia, as a conservative estimate.
Australia has a vaccine for Q fever, developed by an Adelaide researcher.
People needing a vaccine are first tested for prior exposure.
In a recent trip to the Netherlands, Dr Graves suggested to the Dutch authorities that they buy Australia’s vaccine for the population, but his suggestion was rejected.
“80 per cent of all human diseases actually originate from animals.
“That’s what zoonosis is and that’s what One Health movement is all about.
“If just one doctor and one vet had played golf together in Holland, during the early stage of the outbreak everyone would have known about it. They didn’t talk to one another.”
Teys Australia 