Evacuation of an Aboriginal community in response to an outbreak of blistering dermatitis induced by a beetle (Paederus australis)
Todd, R.E.; Guthridge, S.L.; Montgomery, B.L.
Medical Journal of Australia 164(4): 238-240
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-729X PMID: 8604198 Document Number: 458153
A community of 40 Aboriginal people in a remote part of Northern Territory (210 km southwest of Darwin), Australia, was affected by a 'plague' of P. australis beetles in the wet season of February 1995. All residents reported painful, blistering, skin lesions. Four required hospitalisation for treatment of an extensive exfoliating and ulcerating dermatitis. The community was evacuated to allow skin lesions to heal and the beetle plague to decline. The outside perimeter of all houses and inside some of the houses was sprayed with a residual insecticide (deltamethrin). This is the 1st reported en masse outbreak of Paederus dermatitis in Australia. Paederus dermatitis should be considered as a differential diagnosis of vesicular dermatitis in tropical Australia.