The challenge of North Queensland fevers.

Abstract

SUMMARYThe distribution of fevers in North Queensland may largely be correlated with latitude, altitude and rainfall.In the Gulf country and on mining fields in the early days, typhcid and malaria were major causes of fever. Other cases were commonly designated “typho‐malaria”.On the Pacific coast, the incidence of fevers has been high since the eighties. At first obscure in nature, they have been shown to consist mainly of leptospirosis and scrub typhus.Many minds contributed to the elucidation of the northern fevers ; the staff of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine at Townsville played a notable part from 1910 to 193o. Repeatedly, an advance had to await the coming of the right man.The disappearance of typhoid and malaria from the mainland of North Queensland is a public health victory. The means to prevent dengue and to lessen scrub typhus are to hand, but the prevention of leptospirosis is an unsolved problem.