30 Mar 2017
Ross River Virus infections - Current Concepts
WHEN
06 Apr 2017
12:00 - 1:00pm
WHERE
Auditorium
At the next Doherty Seminar, Dr Katherine Gibney, Dr Julio Rodriguez-Andres and Stacey Lynch will examine the recent outbreak of Ross River virus in Victoria through their presentation Ross River Virus infections - Current Concepts.
"Clinical and public health aspects of Ross River Virus" - Dr Katherine Gibney
Presentation Outline
Victoria is currently experiencing its largest Ross River virus (RRV) outbreak on record, with more than 2,000 cases of suspected RRV infection notified to the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) from January to March 2017. RRV causes an acute febrile illness among people of all ages, often with rash and arthritis or arthralgia. A proportion of people experience prolonged symptoms, lasting for more than a year in some. Katherine will describe the current outbreak of RRV in Victoria, the clinical presentation and burden of prolonged symptoms following RRV infection, and public health considerations such as metropolitan RRV transmission and potential implications for our blood service.
"Victorian Arbovirus Disease Control Program: vector population dynamics and arbovirus detections in the summer of 2016/17" - Stacey Lynch
Presentation Outline
The Victorian Arbovirus Disease Control Program is a Victorian Department of Health & Human Services funded program aimed to reduce the incidence of human arbovirus infections, such as Ross River virus and Murray Valley encephalitis virus, in Victoria. Vector monitoring, arbovirus detection in mosquitoes and sentinel surveillance in non-human vertebrates contribute to this program. This presentation will describe the population dynamics of key vector species following the Spring 2016 flood event, and describe the unprecedented number of arboviruses isolated from field mosquitoes. The circulation of at least four significant arbovirus families were detected, with widespread isolation of Ross River virus. Implementation of next-generation sequencing and molecular testing methods for future surveillance programs will also be discussed.
"Zoonosis and Vectors" - Dr Julio Rodriguez
Australia is suffering an unprecedented Ross River virus outbreak this year. In this presentation Julio will describe the molecular mechanism of Ross River virus infection of vertebrates and mosquitoes, laboratory research models for this pathogen, the implication of emerging alphaviruses in Australia as well as the developing of a RRV vaccine.