Research led by the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane and documented in the most recent edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggests up to 750,000 Australians could be exposed to the Japanese encephalitis virus. People living near piggeries and close to populations of wading birds are particularly at risk. QIMR Berghofer’s Associate Professor and senior author of the paper Greg Devine said infectious disease experts are extremely concerned about further outbreaks of Japanese encephalitis this summer. The major carrier of the disease is mentioned as the ‘Culex annulirostris’ mosquito species, which is capable of dispersing more than four kilometres per day. View More