I have written about zoonotic and non-zoonotic diseases a couple of times in this community, and the topic I will be sharing today is a zoonotic disease which means it can be transferred from animals to humans.
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I will be talking about the Hendra virus (HeV) today, this virus was isolated first in the year 1994 from a disease outbreak that involved around 21 horses and 2 humans. The horses and humans that were affected developed a serious respiratory disease that led to the deaths of 14 horses and 1 human.
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The regular outbreaks of diseases related to HeV, that happened in Australia in 1994 have been characterized by serious respiratory and neurological manifestations, with a high level of mortality and morbidity in the affected humans and horses.
The virus belongs to the same virus family as the Nipah virus (Paramyxoviruses). Pteropus bats, or flying fox bats are the most common animals to display Hendra virus in nature. This virus has been found in four different species of Australian flying foxes.
Affected flying foxes can infect horses with the virus after they have been bitten. Horses can also get infected upon being exposed to droppings, saliva, and urine of an infected bat. The infection in humans is rare and in total, only seven cases have been reported so far.
Humans can get an infection with Hendra infection after being exposed to an infected horse. Hendra virus can spread to humans after there has been contact with tissues or excretions of an infected horse like the urine, blood, or birthing materials.
Since the Hendra virus can only be transmitted to humans through an affected horse, then humans can avoid it by staying away from sick horses, or a horse that has been infected with the Hendra virus. If you have to attend to an infected or sick horse, make use of personal protective equipment like gloves, mask, protective eyewear, gown, respirator, and boots.
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Dogs can also get infected by horses through infectious fluids.
There is no vaccine currently for this highly pathogenic virus, and treatment is only restricted to antiviral medications or immunoglobulin therapy, with only a small success rate. A case of handling infectious HeV specimens must be restricted only to laboratories that have a high-level biosafety containment, and any situation of outbreak needs to be treated with great concern.
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Whenever a horse is sick, Hendra virus should be one of the suspected conditions, especially when the cause of the sickness is unknown. However, not all of these are necessarily the signs that an infected horse would show; fever, depression, and rapid onset of illness, discomfort.
With the respiratory, there are signs to also look out for, cases of rapid breathing, difficulty breathing, and nasal discharge at death. Nervous signs to watch out for include; muscle twitching, urinary incontinence, inability to rise, wobbly gait, and aimlessly walking in a dazed state.
Extreme care has to be taken when handling animals, especially sick ones, the best way to prevent the spread of the disease to humans is by avoiding an affected animal or adequately protecting one's self before getting close to them. On the other hand, horses who act sick should be treated on time to prevent complications.
