As dangerous as an enemy bomber - mosquitoes carrying dengue fever...

A wartime example of Australian public health information as propaganda. Issued by the NSW Department of Health, it compares the threat of mosquitoes carrying disease to that of an enemy bomber. An instructional poster it urges civilians to ensure that their homes do not become breeding grounds for mosquitoes by screening water tanks and discarding all bottles, tins and receptacles. When the war moved into the South West Pacific the threat of epidemics of disease spread by insects such as malaria and dengue fever resulted in co-ordinated campaigns involving the Health Department, the Army and local councils to alert civilians and provide clear instructions of how they could help prevent outbreaks. These campaigns included posters, newspaper articles and film.
This campaign was promoted in local newspapers with the warning ‘Should this disease become epidemic in the spring and summer it may affect many important units of the Army, with serious results to its value as a fighting force…And we can all imagine what would happen here in the event of an invasion if the Army were crippled from dengue fever. Similarly, the disease could affect our lines of communications and disorganise our factories and workshops engaged in the production of munitions..’ [Gilgandra Weekly, Thursday 13 August 1942, page 3]