健康英语新闻:Toddler, police contract potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease in Western Australia

SYDNEY, May 27 (Xinhua) -- A toddler and a policeman have become the latest victims of a rare and potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease in Western Australia (WA), local media reported on Friday.

The two-year-old child contracted Murray Valley encephalitis (MVE) in the Kimberley of WA and is now in Royal Darwin Hospital in a stable condition, according to Australian Associated Press (AAP).

The 29-year-old police officer, who was recently contracted the disease at an Aboriginal community of WA, has emerged from a coma in a Perth hospital but is still unable to communicate.

It is not known if the victims from WA's far north will fully recover.

In April 2011, a man who had been traveling in WA's northwest became the first person in the state to die from the disease in three years.

A 19-year-old Canadian tourist also died after contracting MVE while traveling through the Northern Territory earlier in May.

A WA Health Department spokeswoman said nine West Australians had contracted MVE so far in 2011. Several people remain very ill in hospital, she said.