Territory Stories

The Northern Territory Disease Control Bulletin

Details:

Title

The Northern Territory Disease Control Bulletin

Creator

Territory Health Services, Centre for Disease Control

Collection

Northern Territory disease control bulletin; E-Journals; PublicationNT; Northern Territory disease control bulletin

Date

2007-06

Location

Casuarina

Notes

Date:2007-06; This publication contains may contain links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.; Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).

Language

English

Subject

Communicable diseases; Reporting; Northern Territory; Statistics; Periodicals

Publisher name

Northern Territory Government

Place of publication

Casuarina

Series

Northern Territory disease control bulletin

Volume

v. 14 no. 2

File type

application/pdf

ISSN

1440-883X

Use

Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Copyright owner

Northern Territory Government

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/233904

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/655491

Page content

The Northern Territory Disease Control Bulletin Vol 14, No. 2, June 2007 15 yielded isolates of Sindbis virus, RRV, MVEV and Kunjin virus. This work confirms the potential disease risks posed by the various mosquito species in the NT. When this is correlated with the prevalence and distribution of the various species of mosquitoes, it allows some degree of assessment of the potential diseases in the various areas. Those areas with high numbers of vectors, or where transmission has been demonstrated are given a higher priority for vector control or public awareness needs. Mosquito monitoring Mosquito monitoring operations are carried out over as much of the NT as possible, with emphasis on the major towns. This program has built up an information base of the species and prevalence of mosquitoes over a wide area of the NT. A comprehensive reference collection of the mosquitoes from the NT has been assembled and new species and new Australian and NT records have been established. Mosquito Monitoring Darwin Mosquito monitoring using carbon dioxide (CO2) baited light traps has been conducted continuously in Darwin since 1979. Over 20 trap sites are currently utilized and these traps are set weekly at the various sites, adjacent to major swamps near urban areas. This program allows a rapid assessment of any mosquito problems in the Darwin area and is used to determine the need and assess the success of larvacide operations and the mosquito engineering works. The monitoring also allows assessment of risks for malaria transmission as part of the Malaria Surveillance Program. Additional traps are set for actual or potential mosquito problems associated with developmental projects and mosquito complaints. The graphs of mosquito monitoring at Leanyer Swamp (Darwin) are shown in Appendix 1 to demonstrate the dramatic reduction in mosquito numbers from 1983, before the enhanced engineering program and the helicopter applied insecticide program, to 1986 when both programs were in operation. Mosquito Monitoring Northern Territory-Wide A comprehensive picture of the prevalence and distribution of mosquito species in the NT has been built up by a program of ad hoc mosquito surveys throughout the Territory at communities, towns, cattle stations and in non-populated areas. These surveys include collections along the Victoria Highway to the Western Australian border and collections throughout the Barkly Region, to establish, among other things, the distribution of Anopheles farauti, the Australian malaria mosquito. For new tourist, mining, and urban development projects, detailed monitoring surveys for 12 months or over are undertaken to provide detailed information on the potential mosquito problems. Mosquito Monitoring Major Towns Regular adult and larval mosquito monitoring is carried out at the major centres of Darwin, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Jabiru, Alyangula, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, with these towns except Nhulunbuy receiving assistance for monitoring from the MEB under the NT Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Program. In most of these towns, C02 traps are set either once per week or once per month by either health surveyors, mining personnel, town council or town corporation employees. Catches of mosquitoes are forwarded to the MEB for identification and comment. The monitoring data for mosquitoes from these communities is used to determine the need and timing of vector control operations or public awareness notices. Planning and mosquitoes DHCS places a large emphasis on planning as a means to reduce people-mosquito contact. There has been a large input of information to the Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment, on a diverse range of proposed mining, aquaculture, semi-rural residential, urban residential and recreation developments. Project Development MEB comments on preliminary environmental reports or environmental impact statements on many development projects including new airports, proposed mines, proposed dams, industrial developments, new urban developments and many others. The aims of these comments are to prevent the creation of new mosquito breeding areas and to ameliorate or rectify any existing mosquito breeding areas.