Rickettsiales and rickettsial diseases in Australia - Murdoch ...

fleet (1788) to 1868 49 . The disease was never able to establish a foothold in
Australia, probably due to the different climate and cleaner living conditions 95 ,
although several outbreaks were reported in new settlements in the early days
in every state except Western Australia, with the last outbreak occurring in the
central Victorian goldfields in 1853 49 . Cases of Brill-Zinsser disease
(recrudescence of latent R. prowazekii disease) have occurred in Australia
since then, although in each case R. prowazekii was originally contracted
overseas 183, 251 . More cases of Brill-Zinsser disease can be anticipated as
people still migrate to Australia from regions that are endemic for R.
prowazekii 93 .
Three rickettsial species known to cause human disease are endemic in
Australia, Rickettsia typhi 86 , R. australis 9 and R. honei 98 . The first diagnosed
case of R. typhi was in South Australia in 1913. Since this time it has been
detected in Queensland 279 , New South Wales 247 , Western Australia 220 , and,
more recently, Victoria 123 . It is likely that this organism is present Australia-wide.
Historically, R. australis was believed to only occur in northern Queensland and
consequently was named “North Queensland Tick Typhus” 133 . It is now known
to occur as far north as the Torres Strait islands 258 , and down the east coast of
Australia as far south as Gippsland, Victoria 67 .
The agent of Flinders Island spotted fever (R. honei) was believed to be present
only on a small island off the coast of Tasmania in the south east of Australia. It
has now been shown to be more widespread, with cases occurring in South
Australia and Tasmania 260 . More recently a new strain (R. honei strain
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