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Mozzie Mob on the job to rid Tennant of the dengue mosquito

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After recent rains in Tennant Creek, the Mozzie Mob is back to work under a renewed program to cleanse the town of the dengue mosquito.

NT Health Director of Medical Entomology at the Centre for Disease Control, Nina Kurucz, said a fresh round of home backyard inspections will begin with technical officers in town to conduct inspections to prevent an outbreak.

“With the recent rains, unfortunately eggs have been found in receptacles and we have found the dengue mozzie in several properties again,” said Ms Kurucz.

“The dengue mosquito is fairly fast bred. We are asking the community again to tip any water out in receptacles so they can’t breed.

There still remains unchecked homes in town with residents unwilling to allow the Mozzie Mob team onto their properties.

Ms Kurucz believes the problem lies with some residents not trusting the government.

“We are only interested in checking for mosquitoes and we are not reporting to police,” she said.

“We urge these residents to kindly let our staff access to the property to conduct their check for presence of the mosquito.”

While dengue fever is not currently present anywhere in the Northern Territory, if the dengue mosquito became established, it could pick up the virus from an infected overseas traveller and transmit it to other people – so it’s important for elimination be achieved.

It is characterised by abrupt onset of high fever lasting three to seven days, severe headache, pain behind the eyes and muscle and joint pains.

Other symptoms may include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, a rash and sometimes minor bleeding from the nose and gums.

If you feel up to the challenge of fighting the dengue mozzie breeding, NT Health is currently recruiting for more technical officers to join the Mozzie Mob – just check out the NT Government jobs website at https://jobs.nt.gov.au

Tennant & District Times 25 November 2022

This article appeared in Tennant & District Times, 25 November 2022.

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