Floods and warm weather perfect storm for Japanese encephalitis outbreak, researchers warn

Modellers say those within 4km of an infected piggery potentially vulnerable, meaning 740,546 people at risk of mosquito-borne virus

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Warming temperatures combined with flood waters could leave almost 750,000 Australians vulnerable to Japanese encephalitis - a disease that until last year was confined to Asia and far-northern Australia.

The mosquito-borne disease was first detected on the Australian mainland in 1998 but its range expanded dramatically this year. Cases were reported in dozens of southern piggeries (pigs are one of the main carriers of the virus) and there were also 31 confirmed cases in humans and six deaths.

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