This newsletter details information about the Strong Women, Strong Baby, Strong Culture program. This includes topics like Flowers in Bloom, Borroloola Girls Camp, Nguiu Strong Women Workers and Families as First Teachers Grants.

The efficacy of maximum label rates of bifenthrin applications to dry tires to prevent Aedes mosquito breeding was investigated through field colonisation and field bioassay trials. The effect of tires situated in shaded and unshaded locations was also investigated. Aedes notoscriptus and Culex quinquefasciatus larvae were the most abundant species present in the field colonisation trial. Colonisation of tires by Ae. notoscriptus larvae occurred significantly sooner in shaded compared with unshaded locations (P = 0.002), and bifenthrin applications in shaded tires only prevented colonisation for 2.5 weeks. Aedes notoscriptus larvae were not found in the unshaded tires until week 9. Culex quinquefasciatus colonised treated tires from the 2nd week in both shaded and unshaded treatments. In the bioassay, water from bifenthrin treated tires was found to kill 100% of Ae. notoscriptus for only 2.0 weeks in shaded and 2.2 weeks in unshaded treatments. Bifenthrin residual applications therefore cannot be relied upon for preventing mosquito breeding in tires for greater than 2 weeks.******** Note the American spelling of road vehicle tyres.

Aedes (Aedimorphus) vexans vexans has become widely distributed in the Australasian and Oceanic Islands zoogeographic regions, and in this paper, we describe the 1st confirmed report of Ae. vexans vexans in Australia. A total of 45 adult individuals were collected around the town of Kununurra in the northeast Kimberley region of Western Australia during the late wet seasons between 1996 and 2003. The majority (84%) was collected at trap sites in or near the Ord Stage I Irrigation Area. Aedes vexans vexans was a minor component of the mosquito population, comprising <0.1 % of the total number of adults collected during the study period. The absence of Ae. vexans vexans in earlier collections suggests that it has been recently introduced into northeast Kimberley, most likely by wind currents from the Indonesian archipelago or on occasional light aircraft arriving in Kununurra from nearby islands. The collection of adult Ae. vexans vexans every year since 2001 could indicate that this mosquito has become established in the Kununurra environs, possibly facilitated by the presence of year-round breeding sites created by the irrigation area. Encephalitogenic flaviviruses have been isolated from this species in North America, Europe, and Taiwan, and the vector competence of Ae. vexans vexans for arboviruses prevalent in northern Western Australia, particularly the flaviviruses Murray Valley encephalitis and Kunjin, should be investigated.

This report has been prepared for staff who go to work, visit or do research on the island providing an insight to the history, social aspects, health, culture and medical services.

Oral Health & Fluoride Varnish information for health professionals

Between October 2012 and October 2013, unprecedented high numbers of Barmah Forest virus (BFV) disease cases were reported in the Northern Territory (NT). An investigation was launched by the NT Department of Health in cooperation with the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and the Department of Land Resource Management to investigate possible causes for this phenomenon. The investigation included virus isolations from mosquitoes collected in Darwin urban areas, BFV antibody testing in peri-urban small mammals and a human BFV disease case series investigation of recent cases. No BFV was isolated from the 4641 mosquitoes tested, none of the mammals tested positive for BFV antibodies and the high BFV disease case numbers did not correlate with the relatively low mosquito vector numbers trapped in 2012/13. It was estimated that up to 89% of the 79 human cases investigated did not have an acute arboviral illness and therefore had tested falsely positive. An Alere PanBio BFV IgM ELISA test kit is generally used to test for BFV, with the BFV disease case definition based on IgM positives only. Other jurisdictions in Australia also reported high numbers of BFV disease cases, with the majority of the cases suspected to be false positives. Therefore, current testing methods need to be revised to reflect the true numbers of BFV disease cases occurring in Australia, and to provide correct diagnosis for patients.

In 1972 the Northern Territory Department of Health established a small Medical Entomology Branch to investigate and organise control of insects of medical importance in the Northern Territory, with an emphasis on the mosquito vectors of malaria. The Northern Territory was one of the first States or Territories to set up such a unit devoted solely to the above purpose and to have a full time medical entomologist with state wide responsibility. As a result of the 1974 Australian encephalitis outbreak, the need for research and control of mosquito borne diseases on an Australian wide basis became apparent. The Commonwealth Department of Health established financial assistance to the State and Territories in late 1974, under the Australian Encephalitis Control Program. This early assistance contributed towards the equipment and operational needs of the Medical Entomology Branch and aided the establishment of mosquito control programs in Alice Springs, Darwin, Nhulunbuy and Alyangula. The control programs in the various towns were carried out with assistance from the various local councils, corporations or mining companies, in co operation with the local departmental health surveyors or with direct assistance from the Medical Entomology Branch. The guidance of vector control operations by the various operational bodies was undertaken by the Medical Entomology Section. The process of gathering medical entomology data on a Territory wide basis was started, in order to establish vector control operations on a more scientific basis. From the beginning, with a single entomologist and a part time tearoom laboratory, the Medical Entomology Branch evolved into a distinct branch of the Northern Territory Department of Health, with a well equipped laboratory, professional and technical staff and a comprehensive vector surveillance and control program. The activities of the branch have been reported regularly in the Annual Reports of the Northern Territory Department of Health and in the MEB annual branch reports. This paper was prepared for a workshop on Vector Control organised by the National Disease Control Program in Canberra in 1987. It summarises the main elements of the Northern Territory Vector Borne Disease Control Program and highlights some of the results and achievements of this program. This paper was revised in 2007 to reflect current methods and altered situations.

Feedback form for to assist health care workers who are not registered in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.

Mosquitoes and biting midges (genus Culicoides and sometimes erroneously called sand flies) can reach sufficient numbers in various localities to be considered serious pests. The bites themselves can be painful and extremely annoying, and people suffer varying degrees of reaction to bites (Lee 1975). However the possibility of the spread of various diseases by their blood sucking habits to either humans or animals is a more serious outcome. Mosquitoes can carry viruses such as Murray Valley encephalitis, Kunjin, Ross River, and Barmah Forest virus which cause human disease (Russell 1995). Biting midges do not carry any pathogens in Australia that cause human disease.Biting insects create problems in the enjoyment of outdoor activities, causing a reluctance to enter certain areas after sundown or forcing people to be confined to insect-proof areas at certain times of the year. Personal protection and avoidance measures can offer considerable protection from bites, as well as offering protection against mosquito-borne disease.

In May 2016, Culex sitiens numbers sharply increased in a routine adult mosquito CO2 baited encephalitis virus surveillance trap in the northern Darwin suburb of Coconut Grove. A mosquito complaint was received from a resident in Nightcliff in July, with Cx. sitiens numbers also high in a mosquito trap subsequently set at the residence. To find the source of the high mosquito numbers, the Medical Entomology unit of the Department of Health (DoH) carried out larval mosquito surveys in May and found several blocked stormwater outfall drains, some of which were found to be breeding mosquitoes. The drains were treated for mosquito breeding, followed by maintenance works carried out by the City of Darwin (CoD) as part of the combined DoH and CoD mosquito engineering program. Subsequent mosquito surveillance results showed a dramatic decrease in mosquito numbers, highlighting the importance of the collaborative mosquito engineering program carried out in Darwin urban and the routine ground mosquito control program.