Queensland health officials are concerned four children may have been exposed to bat-borne lyssavirus. They were seen playing with a flying fox at Queens Park in Ipswich west of Brisbane last Saturday. Recent tests conducted in the area suggest the virus which is similar to rabies may be present.
Category
đŸ“º
TVTranscript
00:00 It's very important that parents don't wait for symptoms but that they reach out early
00:05 and we're able to support them and support their children in being able to see if they've
00:10 been exposed to the virus.
00:12 So we don't want to cause panic but it is really important that we identify these children
00:15 and we hope that family and friends can spread the message and try and help us as we do that.
00:20 This is very similar virus to the rabies virus and the symptoms are the same.
00:25 Now even though we only find this virus in about 1% of bats, in bats that are behaving
00:33 abnormally this can be up to 30%.
00:37 Now we do know that this bat was on the ground, it was on its tummy and it was struggling
00:43 to move.
00:44 So this is abnormal behaviour.
00:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]