Barcoo fever
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Barcoo Fever
) | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2009) |
Barcoo fever is an illness once common in the
dyspepsia, liver failure, abdominal pain, prolonged enteritis, weight loss, lethargy, and malaise.[1] Severe cases developed inanition and even death. It was seen in travelers in the outback rather than in cities or towns, but occasionally entire settlements were affected, such as occurred in Toowoomba in 1903. The aboriginal population
knew to avoid the ailment by not drinking from certain water sources and by taking water from soaks or pits dug in the dry sandy bed of a stream.
It is postulated that the disease may be due to ingestion of
Australian bush
. Provision of safe drinking water sources in Australia, with the development of bores and covered tanks to collect rainwater, explain the demise of a once-common illness.
References
- ^ Sakshi, Sanskriti (31 January 2023). "Barcoo Fever - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment". iCliniq. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-471-72761-3. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
- Cumpston JHL. Health and disease in Australia. A history. Canberra. AGPS 1989. 372-373.
- Durack M. Kings in grass castles. Moorebank, NSW. Corgi Books: 251.
- Hayman, J (1992). "Beyond the Barcoo--probable human tropical cyanobacterial poisoning in outback Australia". The Medical Journal of Australia. 157 (11–12): 794–6. S2CID 25406034.
- Cyanobacterium Cylindro-spermopsis raciborskii as a probable cause of death in …, DEEDI