Parts of an article by Frank Robson copied from ‘Good Weekend’ August 23rd, 1997

Good Weekend is a supplement to The Age newspaper

Australia has at least 65 arboviruses. One causes abortions in sheep, one makes kangaroos go blind. Ross River virus causes illness only among humans and horses.

With almost no public funding Dr. John Aaskov at the Queensland University of Technology spent four years developing a vaccine. He was supported by a Sydney philanthropist, Patrick Kilkeary. The vaccine is still eighteen months away from human trials. An Australian drug company, Immuno AG, has taken over the project.

RRV was first identified in 1958 from mosquitoes collected at Ross River. Humans are infected when salt or freshwater mosquitoes feed on an infected invertebrate host, typically kangaroos or wallabies. Researchers believe that the recent upsurge in urban infection suggest that some mosquitoes have cut out the " middleman ", transferring the virus directly from one human to another. About one in twenty infected actually get sick.

A tourist with the disease took it to Fiji in 1979. It went through Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, and New Caledonia like a bushfire infecting 30,000 people. So far this is the only epidemic known outside Australia.

A sufferer, Boyd Honor, is worried that the influx of tourists and athletes during the Sydney 2,000 Olympic Games will result in the disease being spread throughout the world. He believes that the government won’t acknowledge the extent and long-term effects of RRV, or fund a comprehensive study of it, through fear of damaging the tourist industry.

RRV is one of a number of infections that can cause a breakdown of the immune system, leading to myalgic encephalomyelitis ( commonly referred to as CFS ).

Frank Robson followed the course of RRV, or epidemic polyarthritis [ RRV attacks the cells of joint tissue ], in a number of patients in the article. He says that a follow up of 821 subjects affected in South Australia in 1992-93 showed that 51 percent still had joint pain after 15 months. At 30 months, pain and other symptoms, including headaches, depression and loss of libido remained common. He records that in do-it-yourself Australia, a popular theory suggests that the best way to " drive out " the virus is to grab an electric fence and hang on.

Infections throughout Australia have increased steadily in the last decade. In 1995 NSW had only 242 confirmed cases. In 1996 it had 1,023. By July of 1997 it was over 1,000.

In 1996 7,700 infections were detected ( by blood tests ) around Australia. Early in 1997 an upsurge of infection was recorded in the fringes of Sydney ( 20 ) and Melbourne ( 100 ).

Among symptoms recorded by Robson are :

Loss of memory ( a photographer would go somewhere to take a photograph and then forget why he was there.)

Rashes so severe that they bled.
Having to wait two years before a patient could sleep on his left side. His felt his heart beating so hard that it would lift him off the bed.

One mother who has had it for seven years had such pain that she would run hot water over her hands each morning so that she could pick her baby up.

The link between RRV and CFS is part of a study based in Dubbo, NSW, where the health of 300 people with viral infections will be monitored over three years. Associate professor Andrew Lloyd, a Sydney infectious diseases specialist, is in charge of the study. He says that it will seek to determine whether interferon - proteins made by human cells to fight viruses - may continue to be manufactured in the body after acute infection, causing CFS type symptoms.

John Schofield was a TNT division manager before RRV laid him low ten years ago. He was a sprint cyclist and workaholic. He has tried all the known treatments. He forced himself to train for weeks on pain-killers for the ‘94 World Masters Games hoping that he could " break-through " the virus.

He gave up in the end. He said, " They put me on a disabilty pension. My wife and I have our little house with three dogs and a fish tank.

John says, " There are some things you just can’t beat. Once you admit that you have peace of mind."

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