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Barcoo fever

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Barcoo fever is an illness once common in the Australian outback that is now virtually unknown. It was characterised by nausea and vomiting exacerbated by the sight or smell of food and, unlike the usual gastro-intestinal infections, by constipation rather than diarrhoea. Fever and myalgia were also symptoms. Some additional symptoms of Barcoo fever include diarrhea, dyspepsia, liver failure, abdominal pain, prolonged enteritis, weight loss, lethargy, and malaise. Severe cases developed inanition and even death. It was seen in travelers in the outback rather than in cities or towns, but occasionally entire settlements were affected, such as occurred in Toowoomba in 1903. The aboriginal population knew to avoid the ailment by not drinking from certain water sources and by taking water from soaks or pits dug in the dry sandy bed of a stream.