Mosquito map reveals links to under-researched rural diseases

A research project that mapped mosquito species across central and northern Queensland has found links to more than 75 mosquito-borne diseases that affect rural communities.

Andrew Taylor-Robinson, a medical microbiologist at Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, says that little is known about many of these diseases, or arboviruses, such as Edge Hill, Kokoberra and Stratford viruses.

These viruses are the cause of diseases known as Undifferentiated Febrile Illnesses, or UFIs, with symptoms that include high-temperature fevers that can last for more than two weeks,