{"id":433477,"date":"2026-01-24T02:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433477\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:12:16","slug":"ross-river-virus-cases-quadruple-in-south-australia-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433477\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross River Virus cases quadruple in South Australia in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many Australians, Bec Powditch was enjoying the Australia Day long weekend at her family’s shack along the River Murray last year when she was “annihilated” by mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

It was not uncommon for the 44-year-old to be targeted by the tiny insect, but one week later, Ms Powditch noticed she had developed a red rash on her arms and legs. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Bec Powditch originally thought she was experiencing heat rash. (Supplied: Bec Powditch)<\/p>\n

Within a few days, she began experiencing joint pain in her wrists, knees and feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It felt like someone was smashing my joints with a hammer,” Ms Powditch said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Apart from childbirth, it was probably the worst pain I have experienced.<\/p>\n

\"Bec<\/p>\n

Bec Powditch says the virus impacted her physical and mental health. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

“I was waking up feeling like my joints had been put in some sort of torture device.”<\/p>\n

After researching her symptoms, Ms Powditch asked her GP to test for Ross River Virus (RRV) \u2014 two weeks later, her symptoms were confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Bec Powditch says she never received a follow-up phone call after testing positive. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

“The first doctor I saw wasn’t very positive … [they] told me just to take paracetamol and ibuprofen, which I was already doing, and it had done absolutely nothing,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The low point was when I got the text message [from the GP] … saying I had acute Ross River Virus and I would be contacted within a few days, but I didn’t hear anything.”<\/p>\n

After joining support pages online and visiting another GP, Ms Powditch was prescribed steroids, which she ended up taking for five months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One year on from contracting the virus, Ms Powditch said she still experienced pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tweleve months on, Bec Powditch still applies tropical pain relief cream to her joints. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

“I definitely don’t feel like I am the same person as I was before,” she said.Cases four times higher<\/p>\n

RRV is spread by mosquitoes from infected animals to humans and is found across Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no antiviral treatment for the infection and no vaccine to prevent infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, 106 cases were recorded in South Australia, compared to 25 cases in 2024, according to SA Health’s surveillance of notifiable conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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All positive RRV tests are reported to government health authorities. (AAP: University of Queensland, file photo)<\/p>\n

SA Health’s acting chief public health officer Chris Lease said the Riverland region was just one area where RRV cases were detected last year.<\/p>\n

“We do tend to see cases clustered around the Riverland, but we have seen cases acquired right across\u00a0SA … Ross River detections and mosquitoes have been taken from the northern Adelaide Plains area, for example,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Chris Lease says it is not just large waterways that attract mosquitoes. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n

Dr Lease said that while the number of cases last year was four times the 2024 total, previous years had been similar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In 2023, we did have a lot more rainfall, a lot more breeding sites occurring and some of the warmer weather that accompanied that as well, which gave a boost to the mosquito population,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re starting to see the numbers creep up again in late 2025 and going into 2026.<\/p>\n

“We really want people to focus on things like covering up, wearing loose and long clothing, using mosquito repellent as per the instructions, but also keeping an eye on their local environment.”<\/p>\n

Dr Lease said large waterways were not the only areas where mosquito-borne diseases could be found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We do need to take this seriously, and that’s why we’ve released an updated mosquito virus awareness campaign called Mozzies Suck, because we really do want this in front of people’s mind.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Virus awareness\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adelaide University public environmental health professor Craig Williams said the introduction of new mosquito-borne diseases into Australia, such as Japanese Encephalitis, meant the conversation around RRV had not been as prevalent.<\/p>\n

“Japanese Encephalitis virus and Murray Valley Encephalitis virus are quite deadly … the mortality rate is quite high, around 20 per cent,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When you get new viruses coming and people can die, they tend to forget about the everyday or annual [infections] like Ross River Virus, which debilitate but don’t kill.”<\/p>\n

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Craig Williams says it may take a few years before cohesive national surveillance is achieved. (Supplied: Craig Williams)<\/p>\n

Professor Williams hoped the Australian Centre for Disease Control, which was launched in 2024, could play a leading role in setting national policy and strategy around surveillance for diseases, including RRV.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have been fragmented into our states in Australia in terms of information systems, so having a unified approach to infectious diseases nationally would be very welcome,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Bec Powditch hopes there is more awareness in the community about RRV. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

Back in SA’s Riverland, Ms Powditch hoped to see more empathy and awareness about RRV, so no-one else had to experience the same pain she endured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Living with that pain is really draining … and I was lucky I knew it would eventually clear, but for some people they may not have that same experience,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like many Australians, Bec Powditch was enjoying the Australia Day long weekend at her family’s shack along the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,226705,226704,137,52221,196499,226706,6878,196495,226707,196494,45460],"class_list":["post-433477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-centre-for-disease-control","tag-chris-lease","tag-health","tag-japanese-encephalitis","tag-mosquito-borne-disease","tag-murray-valley-encephalitis","tag-riverland","tag-ross-river-virus","tag-ross-river-virus-symptoms","tag-rrv","tag-sa-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433477","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=433477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}