Health authorities continue to search for the source of a poisoning incident that led to five people being hospitalised in Brisbane’s south in the past week after ingesting rat bait.
Queensland Health issued an alert to staff on Saturday warning them to be on the lookout for symptoms related to the consumption of brodifacoum – a widely used rat poison.
The search for the source of a rat poisoning incident that hospitalised five people continues. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
It came after five patients, including a child, presented to the Queensland Children’s Hospital, Logan Hospital and Princess Alexandra.
Symptoms of rat poisoning could take “many days” to be noticed, said Professor Paul Griffin, the director of infectious diseases at Mater Health, and he warned people not to be complacent.
“There’s a strong suggestion, from where these people are presenting, that the clustering is on the south side [of Brisbane],” he said.
“But because it can take a long time for the effects to be noticed, we certainly don’t want people in other areas to be complacent or assume that we won’t see a case somewhere potentially unexpected.”
Griffin said rat poison was frequently ingested accidentally, with 17,000 cases reported in the US in a single year, primarily involving young children exposed to anticoagulant baits.
As brodifacoum inhibits vitamin K, which is essential for blood to clot, a common symptom of rat poisoning is excessive bleeding, often in the gums when brushing teeth, or nose bleeds.
“The simple message now is that anyone who’s bleeding unexpectedly or more than they might expect, especially if you’ve been in the vicinity of where these cases seem to be clustering, I’d certainly go and get checked out,” Griffin said.
“The more cases we find, the greater the probability of cross-referencing where the exposure might have been, so we can hopefully track down [the source] and get to the bottom of what’s happened.”
On Sunday, acting chief health officer Dr Catherine McDougall said there was no risk to the community “at this time”, despite the source of the poisoning remaining unknown.
“Investigations are under way to try and determine a link to or source of the poisoning,” she said. “No link or source has been identified so far.”
Health Minister Tim Nicholls said all avenues were being explored to locate the source, which included the possibility that rat bait contaminated food at a restaurant or takeaway outlet.
“Whether it’s contaminated eggs or contaminated mayonnaise or rodents, there are strict rules around food preparation food service, and they need to be adhered to,” he said.
“Public health is really important, and that’s why the Chief Health Officer and the public health unit are carrying out really thorough investigations.
“If someone’s done something wrong, then they will know about it, but if they’ve done something wrong, we have to prove it, and we have to make sure that we’ve got the evidence to do it, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
A spokesperson for Queensland Health said investigations were ongoing.
Anyone with concerns about their health should see their doctor, present to the emergency department or contact 13 43 25.
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