Bugs in floods

Abstract

Floods are natural disasters that affect millions of people every year, with escalating impact due to a combination of factors that include increasing urbanisation of previously uninhabited land, deforestation, and climate change. Floods do not discriminate between lower–middle income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries, though the types of damage can differ. As a ‘fire or flood’ country, Australia is no exception. Apart from the obvious physical damage to infrastructure and direct impact on human health due to injury and drowning, there is a more insidious danger lurking in floodwaters – a range of microbial pathogens that can opportunistically cause additional morbidity and mortality. These health effects can be both acute, and longer term. This review focuses on bacterial infections that can be attributed to floods, divided into sections that summarise opportunistic infections by commonly seen human pathogens, versus infections caused by more unusual microbes that are normally not encountered until they are released by floods.

Emerging viral threats in Australia

“…14,15 Of particular risk are events that lead to a lack of clean water and, in some cases, an increase in stagnant water around urban settlements, which can drive increased mosquito populations. 16,17 These conditions have been witnessed in Australia over the 2020-2023 period, with increased severe flooding events coinciding with both an increase in mosquito populations and an increase in arboviral disease, including the emergence of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in south-eastern Australia. 18 The outbreak likely stemmed from the introduction of the virus from the Torres Strait Islands, Papua New guinea and Indonesian territories, where the outbreak genotype (IV) had previously been identified.…”

Adding to the havoc: microbiology and management following natural disasters

“…From Australia, Mark Blaskovich and Patrick Harris cover bugs in floods 2 and Timothy Ralf and Tsuyoshi Kobayashi discuss the impacts of floods on soil microbiology. 3 Food safety is also another important risk factor in disaster-stricken areas and SP Singh provides an overview on how flooding adversely affects fresh produce safety.…”