The appearance of a “tropical” mosquito-borne illness in southeastern Australia has unsettled researchers.
Construction supervisor Jack McCann started to feel “a bit crook”—that’s “sick,” in Australian slang—on the hot afternoon of 26 February 2022. He and some buddies had just finished laying a fireplace hearth in his backyard in Corowa, Australia, population 5500. His friends suggested a trip to the pub. McCann, then 30, told them he needed to beg off. “Usually, I would have been the first one there,” he says.
Corowa sits beside the Murray River, which in that region forms the border between the states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, to the south. It’s a scenic area that draws tourists to fish, boat, and swim every summer. It’s also rich with wetlands that make ideal mosquito breeding grounds. The river slides along slowly about 300 meters from McCann’s front door.
McCann went to bed unusually early that night. He woke the next morning drenched in sweat and vomited his breakfast. He rarely got sick, and he wasn’t a complainer, but he asked his partner to take him to the small local hospital. When his mother, Jo McCann, a nurse, visited him 24 hours later, “I was absolutely horrified by his appearance,” she recalls. “He was moaning. He was pale. He was photophobic. He just looked terrible.” She asked the charge nurse, “How do I get him transferred?”