Site Published: 16th April 2010
Last updated: 18th April 2010
Last updated: 18th April 2010
When authorities get it wrong and refuse to address the situation, people die!
When mistakes are made and advice ignored, people die!
Hendra virus was first discovered in Australia in September 1994, first named 'equine morbillivirus' and later renamed after the suburb it was discovered, commonly referred to as HeV.
In 1999 another deadly virus emerged in Malaysia, later named after the town it was discovered, Nipah. The video link below is a chilling must watch (20min), [warning contains footage some viewers may find distressing].
Embedding code has been disabled by the original poster so after pressing play, click on 'Watch on YouTube', another browser window will open the video.
When mistakes are made and advice ignored, people die!
Hendra virus was first discovered in Australia in September 1994, first named 'equine morbillivirus' and later renamed after the suburb it was discovered, commonly referred to as HeV.
In 1999 another deadly virus emerged in Malaysia, later named after the town it was discovered, Nipah. The video link below is a chilling must watch (20min), [warning contains footage some viewers may find distressing].
Embedding code has been disabled by the original poster so after pressing play, click on 'Watch on YouTube', another browser window will open the video.
When Governments get it wrong!
As seen in the video footage above, Nipah virus is closely related to the Hendra virus. It was confirmed to have infected a variety of animal species, pigs, cats, dogs, horses to name a few. Just as Hendra has been proved under laboratory conditions to be able to infect not only a range of domestic species, but also transmitted between them. Recent finding by Canadian Scientists have also proven that pigs are a potential host for Hendra virus. [See some of the transmission studies on Research Page]
In virtually all official Australian literature you will find evidence of their surveillance efforts to detect these bat borne viruses such as Hendra and ABL (Australian Bat Lyssavirus) involve serological testing of LIVE humans and domestic animals. In the case of ABL the surveillance efforts generally mention blood testing of bat handlers (live healthy ones). Serological surveillance (very limited) in domestic species such as cats has been in LIVE cats, not dead ones! These deadly viruses have such a high mortality rate, and as stated by the scientists at AAHL, cats are what they consider a 'dead end host', the same as humans. Testing dead ones would seem more appropriate!
In virtually all official Australian literature you will find evidence of their surveillance efforts to detect these bat borne viruses such as Hendra and ABL (Australian Bat Lyssavirus) involve serological testing of LIVE humans and domestic animals. In the case of ABL the surveillance efforts generally mention blood testing of bat handlers (live healthy ones). Serological surveillance (very limited) in domestic species such as cats has been in LIVE cats, not dead ones! These deadly viruses have such a high mortality rate, and as stated by the scientists at AAHL, cats are what they consider a 'dead end host', the same as humans. Testing dead ones would seem more appropriate!
| • | Nipah virus causes severe illness characterized by inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or respiratory diseases. |
| • | Nipah virus can be transmitted to humans from animals, and can also be transmitted directly from human-to-human; in Bangladesh, half of reported cases between 2001 and 2008 were due to human-to-human transmission. |
| • | Nipah virus can cause severe disease in domestic animals such as pigs. |
| • | There is no treatment or vaccine available for either people or animals. |
| • | Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural host of Nipah virus. |