Beware of Hendra virus from Australia!

Ministry of Health has been communicating with the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the report related to Hendra virus cases in Queensland, Australia. This was conveyed by the Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health (P2PL) Tjandra Yoga Aditama in a release, recently.

From the observation in mind that cases that occur in humans is very rare, but of which never found the same symptoms as symptoms of severe respiratory disease. One of the early cases are veterinarians and others who handle a horse farm (in Australia) then the horse sick and infect humans.

Hendra virus is a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus which has two members, namely Hendra virus and Nipah virus. Hendra virus was first isolated in September 1994 from specimens obtained during an outbreak of respiratory and neurological disease in horses and humans in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia.

Disseminators of the virus is naturally are of the genus Pteropus bats found in Australia. Hendra virus caused disease in horses in Australia. Infection in humans occurs because of exposure to secretions from infected horses Hendra virus.

Laboratory tests that can be used to diagnose Hendra virus is the antibody test by ELISA (IgG and IgM), RT-PCR) and virus isolation. The disease can be prevented, by avoiding infected animals with Hendra virus and use personal protective equipment will be safe when in contact with animals suspected of being potentially infected. To treat it, ribavirin proved to be effective against the virus in vitro.

In Australia, sporadic cases in horses continues to occur, but number of cases is not much. Infection in humans is very rare, but human infections have occurred from 1996 to 2007.