The five people at the centre of a suspected rat poisoning cluster in south-east Queensland are all from Logan, the ABC understands.<\/p>\n
Health authorities are investigating how the patients, who presented to different hospitals over the past week, came to ingest the toxin, with contact tracing underway.<\/p>\n
Here’s what we know so far.<\/p>\n
What are they suspected of ingesting?<\/p>\n
Authorities believe all five people ingested brodifacoum, a common active ingredient in rat poison.<\/p>\n
The toxin thins the blood by interfering with vitamin K, which is essential for clotting.<\/p>\n
The five patients, with one child among them, attended Queensland Children’s Hospital, Logan Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital last week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the patients presented to Queensland Children’s Hospital this week. (ABC News: Marc Smith)<\/p>\n
Mater Hospital’s director of infectious diseases, Dr Paul Griffin, said more cases could not be ruled out due to the way symptoms could present.<\/p>\n
He said it could take days, or more than a week, for people to become ill and symptoms could be subtle or similar to other illnesses.<\/p>\n
“It’s always really hard to pinpoint the exact source, especially something that can manifest many days down the track,” he said.<\/p>\n
What are the symptoms?<\/p>\n
Early symptoms include bruising easily and bleeding from the gums and nose, but if left untreated, Dr Griffin said it could lead to more complications, including internal bleeding.<\/p>\n
For children, symptoms can be more severe.<\/p>\n
“If children ingest an amount similar to adults, they’re likely to have more significant symptoms, so we definitely need to be on the lookout for young children who might be exposed,” Dr Griffin said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Paul Griffin says more cases cannot be ruled out. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Despite cases being isolated to Logan so far, he warned residents in other areas of south-east Queensland to be alert, not alarmed, and monitor for symptoms.<\/p>\n
“The important thing though is that we find any cases quickly,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Both so we can identify the source, potentially, but also give people that antidote so they can recover as quickly as possible,” Dr Griffin said.<\/p>\n
Vitamin K can be given as an antidote to the poison, but treatment times vary and some patients may need to take it for several weeks.<\/p>\n
Where’s the investigation up to?<\/p>\n
Queensland’s chief health officer has stressed that the source of the infection is yet to be identified, nor has a link between the cases.<\/p>\n
“Queensland Health will notify the community if there is a risk to public health,” Dr Catherine McDougall said.<\/p>\n
“I encourage anyone with concerns about their health to see their doctor, present to the emergency department or contact 13 43 25.”<\/p>\n
Speaking on Sunday, Health Minister Tim Nicholls said he was aware of “speculation” about the source, but stressed investigations were continuing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Our primary concern is making sure those involved are well on their way to recovery and are in a position to be interviewed,” he said.<\/p>\n
A Logan City Council spokesperson said council was not involved with the investigation but characterised reports as “worrying”.<\/p>\n
“We are concerned to hear that members of the community have been hospitalised after suspected ingestion of brodifacoum,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The five people at the centre of a suspected rat poisoning cluster in south-east Queensland are all from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,651,135912,137857,80169,33678,137860,137859,44,94,701,137858,22380,8920,53298],"class_list":["post-228034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane","tag-brodifacoum","tag-contact-tracing","tag-health-minister-tim-nicholls","tag-logan","tag-logan-city-council","tag-logan-hospital-and-princess-alexandra-hospital","tag-news","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-chief-health-officer-catherine-mcdougall","tag-queensland-childrens-hospital","tag-queensland-health","tag-rat-poison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}