1. What is Paramyxo virus?
2. What is Hendra virus?
3. What are the other animals that can be affected with Hendra virus?
4. What are the signs and symptoms of Hendra virus infection?
5. How is it transmitted?
6. How is it prevented?

Fact sheet on deadly new virus in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 (Reuters) - The following information is taken from aMalaysian Health Ministry fact sheet on a virus found in a pig-breeding region where dozens of people have died.

The fact sheet was issued on Friday. Information included below in parentheses did not come from the sheet.

1. What is Paramyxo virus?

Paramyxo viruses are a group of enveloped RNA viruses whose members have been shown to cause animal and human infection. Several new viruses belonging to this family Paramyxo virus have been isolated in Australia since 1994. This includes the Hendra virus.

Hendra virus has been shown to affect race horses and three humans in Australia. Two of these Australian patients died, one of respiratory infection and the other of meningo-encephalitis. It is clearly established that Hendra virus is a fruit bat virus. Fruit bat virus can cause infection in other animals; for example, horses.

Experimental studies have shown that in horses and cats the virus causes fatal pneumonia. Other animals include fruit bats, birds and guinea pigs.

Findings of the patient who died of meningo-encephalitis showed a brief period of aseptic meningitic illness shortly after caring for two infected horses that died from the same disease. (Symptoms of encephalitis include headaches, dizziness, high fever and convulsions leading to loss of consciousness.)

Researchers have shown that infected animals excrete the virus in their urine. The virus is not carried through the breath of horses and is not highly contagious.

 

Good rigorous hygiene practices in horse stables and the surrounding environment. Hendra virus is an enveloped virus and is susceptible to soaps and detergent solutions.

---

 
 

CSIRO Animal Health scientists have discovered more about the mysterious Hendra disease that killed two humans and fifteen horses in Queensland in two outbreaks in 1994-5.

Scientist Dr Mark Williamson says research at the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong has shown that while the Hendra virus is not highly contagious, it is often deadly if an infection occurs.

Formerly known as the equine morbillivirus, the Hendra virus has been shown to infect humans, horses, cats and guinea pigs. Fruit bats (also called flying foxes) are thought to be the natural ‘host’ of the virus.

The research findings will be published in the Australian Veterinary Journal today (December 14, 1998).

"Basic research and understanding of this virus will be critical if there is ever further outbreaks of the disease. But perhaps of greater importance, is that the basic understanding gained through the research can be applied to other viruses," Dr Williamson says.

The CSIRO research demonstrates that horses can be infected by eating material contaminated with the virus, and that transmission from cat urine to horses can occur. Horses, cats and guinea pigs excrete the virus in their urine. Most importantly, the research also shows the virus was not carried on the breath of horses.

The Hendra virus produces both lung and brain disease, consistent with related viruses such as canine distemper and measles.

Dr Williamson also noted that during the four-year research program into the Hendra virus, two previousl unknown diseases also associated with bats have been identified in Australia.

The Australian bat lyssavirus was identified in 1996 after samples from a sick bat were sent to AAHL for testing for Hendra virus. Tests in fact showed that the disease was caused by a close relative of rabies, which occurs overseas. A human bat carer later died from the illness. A second human case, a Queensland woman, was diagnosed with the disease last week.

The Menangle virus was first isolated in 1997 by NSW Agriculture after pig illness and miscarriage in a NSW piggery, and influenza like symptoms occurred in piggery workers. The Menangle virus is also carried by fruit bats.

"The number of ‘new’ viruses discovered in Australia this decade means that this type of basic research is even more important. It ensures that we maintain our skills in dealing with newly emerging diseases," Dr Williamson says.

AAHL scientists first identified the Hendra virus after tissue samples were rushed from Queensland during an outbreak of the mystery disease in Hendra in1994, in which one human and thirteen horses died. The scientists showed the disease was not caused by an exotic (foreign) disease, but was in fact a new virus that had not previously been identified.

One person and two horses died in a later outbreak in Mackay in 1994-95. There have been no further outbreaks of the disease since that time.
 

Kuala Lumpur, March 19, 1999

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