Dengue fever: is it endemic in Australia?

Abstract

It is instructive to look at our early colonial history for insights as to what factors may be involved with the re-emergence of diseases once considered endemic in Australia. Malaria, for example, was responsible for large epidemics in the Northern Territory and the Gulf of Carpentaria, and was the reason for the desertion of the town of Port Essington, north of Darwin, in 1849.1 The north Queensland coast was considered endemic for malaria with a large epidemic in 1942 leading to the establishment of a malaria research unit in Cairns under the guidance of Colonel Neil Hamilton Fairley. The combination of effective malaria control in the allied forces combined with civilian mosquito control measures led to the disappearance of malaria soon after World War II, although sporadic epidemics, linked to introduced cases, have occurred since.