Year: 2006
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: A veterinarian became infected with Hendra virus (HeV) after managing a terminally ill horse and performing a limited autopsy with inadequate precautions.Although she was initially only mildly ill, serological tests suggested latent HeV infection.Nevertheless, she remains well 2 years after her initial illness.Recently emerged zoonotic viruses, such as HeV, necessitate appropriate working procedures and personal protective equipment in veterinary practice.(MJA 2006; 185: 562-564) H endra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus together comprise the genus Henipavirus within the family Paramyxoviridae (Box 1). 1 HeV, formerly called equine morbillivirus, was first described after an outbreak of severe respiratory disease in horses, leading to the deaths of 14 horses and a horse trainer in Brisbane in September 1994.2,3 The trainer had had very close manual contact with frothy nasal and oral secretions, some of which were blood-tinged, from several of the very ill horses, as did a stable-hand; he developed an influenzalike illness but made a full recovery.The horses and both people were infected with HeV.2,3 An earlier outbreak of HeV disease was not recognised until the death, in 1995, of a farmer in Mackay.He had assisted his veterinarian wife with the autopsies of two horses that died suddenly from unknown cause in August 1994.He was hospitalised about 2 weeks later with an aseptic meningitis, from which he apparently made a full recovery.3,4 However, about a year later he became acutely unwell again, and died from a severe encephalitis caused by HeV.3,4 The two horses were (retrospectively) shown to have also been infected with HeV. 5 After these two outbreaks, extensive investigations identified fruit bats (Pteropus spp.), commonly known as flying foxes, as the likely natural reservoir of HeV; the infection is probably subclinical in most infected flying foxes.6,7 Although it is not certain how HeV could be transmitted from flying foxes to horses, the isolation of the virus from uterine fluid and aborted fetal tissue of flying foxes suggests that horses could ingest the virus on feed or pasture recently contaminated by birth products (Box 2).6,7 The available evidence indicates that transmission of the virus from horses to people, albeit rare, occurs through physical contact with nasal and oral secretions emanating from very ill, dying or dead horses.8 The third recognised outbreak of HeV disease occurred in January 1999, when a horse in a northern suburb of Cairns died from pneumonia.9 No human infection associated with this equine HeV case was detected.We report here the fourth known outbreak of HeV infection and discuss the implications of this recently emerged virus for veterinary practice.
Source: The Medical Journal of Australia
Authors: Jeffrey N Hanna, William J McBride, Dianne L Brookes, Jack Shield, Carmel T Taylor, Ina L Smith, Scott B Craig, Greg A Smith
Language: English
Topic: Virology and Viral Diseases
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W43100042