'PARENTS' WARNING: 'A MOSQUITO ALMOST KILLED OUR BOY'

BABY SAM HAD A CLOSE CALL AFTER CONTRACTING JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS

- Megan Rowe

Cradling her precious baby boy in her arms, Bec Kinross cannot believe she came so close to losing him to a deadly mosquito virus.

On Australia Day, Bec and her partner Luke Gilliland were enjoying a family getaway at a caravan park at Ebden, in north-east Victoria, when 5-month-old Sam was bitten by a mosquito.

It wasn't until two weeks later that Bec, 39, and Luke, 35, discovered something more serious had happened, when their bright and energetic tot developed a high fever and began convulsing in his bed.

"Sam woke up from his sleep and I thought he was looking up at the ceiling fan, then I saw his eyes were deviating to the left and panic set in," Bec tells New Idea.