Hendra Virus
Etiology/Bacteriology
Taxonomy
| Order = Monoegavirales
|Family = [[Paramyxoviridae]]
|Genus = [[Henipavirus]]
|Species = Hendra Virus
|NCBI: Taxonomy Genome: Genome|}
Description
Hendra Virus is a member of the Paramyxoviridae virus family, which also includes the Measles virus, Canine Distemper virus, and Mumps virus. [3] It shares the genus Henipavirus with Nipah virus. [3] Hendra virus first broke out in 1994 at a stable in Hendra, a town in Queensland, Australia. In this initial outbreak, the virus killed 13 horses and infected two humans, killing one. [4] There have been several outbreaks of Hendra since then, all concentrated in Queensland and New South Wales in Australia.[5] Flying foxes are believed to be the reservoir of Hendra virus, based on the detection of Hendra virus antibodies in the blood of several flying fox species and the discovery of a Hendra-like virus in a healthy flying fox. [6] Hendra Virus has been documented to affect horses and humans. In horses, an infection is generally characterized by depression, fever, and a frothy discharge from the nose. [4] In humans, flu-like symptoms occur, but the disease has been reported to progress to encephalitis in some fatal cases. [7]
Pathogenesis
Transmission
References
1.
2.
3. Wang LF, Yu M, Hansson E, Pritchard LI, Shiell B, Michalski WP, Eaton BT. 2000. The exceptionally large genome of Hendra virus: support for creation of a new genus within the family Paramyxoviridae. J Virol 74:9972–9979.
4.Murray K, Rogers R, Selvey L, Selleck P, Hyatt a., Gould a., Gleeson L, Hooper P, Westbury H. 1995. A novel morbillivirus pneumonia of horses and its transmission to humans. Emerg Infect Dis 1:31–33.
5.Playford EG, McCall B, Smith G, Slinko V, Allen G, Smith I, Moore F, Taylor C, Kung YH, Field H. 2010. Human Hendra virus encephalitis associated with equine outbreak, Australia, 2008. Emerg Infect Dis 16:219–223.
6. Field H, Young P, Yob JM, Mills J, Hall L, Mackenzie J. 2001. The natural history of Hendra and Nipah viruses. Microbes Infect 3:307–314.
7.Marsh G a., Wang LF. 2012. Hendra and Nipah viruses: Why are they so deadly? Curr Opin Virol 2:242–247.
