To the Editor: Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) is rarely seen in south-eastern Australia, as described in the recent review in the Journal by Knox and colleagues.1 During the MVEV transmission period in early 2011, there was extensive flooding, and high notification rates were reported for other mosquito-transmitted infections, including flavivirus infection among horses. MVEV seroconversion was detected in sentinel chicken flocks. However, despite concerns about widespread human disease, there were only four notifications of confirmed cases during this time.2 We designed a study to detect and monitor asymptomatic human transmission of MVEV to aid public health decisions about mosquito control.
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- 1. Knox J, Cowan RU, Doyle JS, et al. Murray Valley encephalitis: a review of clinical features, diagnosis and treatment. Med J Aust 2012; 196: 322-326. <MJA full text>
- 2. Department of Health and Ageing. National notifiable diseases surveillance system. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2012. http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/source/cda-index.cfm (accessed Jul 2012).
- 3. Hall RA, Broom AK, Hartnett AC, et al. Immunodominant epitopes on the NS1 protein of MVE and KUN viruses serve as targets for a blocking ELISA to detect virus-specific antibodies in sentinel animal serum. J Virol Methods 1995; 51: 201-210.
- 4. Loroño-Pino MA, Farfan-Ale JA, Blitvich BJ, et al. Evaluation of an epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the diagnosis of West Nile virus infections in humans. Clin Vaccine Immunol 2009; 16: 749-755.
- 5. Forbes JA. Murray Valley encephalitis 1974 — also, the epidemic variance since 1914 and predisposing rainfall patterns. Sydney: Australasian Medical Publishing Company, 1978.
- 6. Nicholls N. A method for predicting Murray Valley encephalitis in southeast Australia using the Southern Oscillation. Aust J Exp Biol Med Sci 1986; 64: 587-594.
- 7. Slota-Kan S, Leydon J. Murray Valley encephalitis sero-survey of northern Victoria, 2008. Vic Infect Dis Bull 2011; 14: 43-45.
No relevant disclosures.