Nick Coatsworth: Australian doctor explains the risk of China’s spreading virus
A mosquito-borne virus sweeping through southern China has now reached Taiwan, but Australian infectious disease expert Nick Coatsworth said the risk to Australia remains low.
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that causes fever, severe joint pain, rash, and fatigue, and while rarely fatal, it can lead to prolonged symptoms lasting weeks or even months.
More than 10,000 cases have been reported across at least a dozen Chinese cities, with around 3000 new infections in the past week.
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Speaking on Ben Fordham Live on 2GB, Dr Coatsworth said Australia should not share China’s level of concern.
“I think China needs to be concerned. I don’t think we need to share that concern in Australia,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“The problem with China is that humans are an amplifying host, which means when you get an epidemic, the virus sits in humans and mosquitoes, and in densely populated areas that can make it very difficult to control,” Dr Coatsworth explained.
He noted that Australia already deals with a similar virus, the Ross River virus, which produces comparable symptoms.
While returned travellers have brought chikungunya — a virus whose name comes from Tanzania, meaning “to double over” — into Australia before, he said it was unlikely to spread in a pandemic-like fashion.
“This is not a new virus, it’s an old one,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be something like Covid that’s going to spread around the world in a pandemic sort of fashion.”
However, he expressed ongoing concerns about transparency in China’s handling of emerging diseases.
“The thing I worry about is not the virus, but the transparency of the Chinese government if there is a new virus,” he said.
“We saw no signs after the pandemic … the Morrison Government tried very hard to get insight into what happened in Wuhan. Ultimately, that failed, and the Albanese Government utterly abandoned any attempt to get any clarity.”
The US Centres for Disease Control has issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Guangdong, urging travellers to take extra precautions, while Chinese authorities have introduced strict prevention measures reminiscent of the country’s COVID-19 response, including quarantines, mass surveillance, and mandatory pharmacy reporting of fever-related drug sales.
Taiwan’s Centre for Disease Control confirmed its first imported case of chikungunya fever on Friday, a woman who had recently returned from Foshan, the epicentre of China’s outbreak in Guangdong Province.
Originally published as Australian doctor explains the risk of China’s spreading virus
