Vets welcome Hendra virus review
Posted
The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) has welcomed an independent review of the handling of the most recent outbreak of Hendra virus in Queensland.
Dr Nigel Perkins looked into a 2006 outbreak of Hendra virus and will now lead the review of the outbreak at Redlands Veterinary Clinic on Brisbane's bayside.
The Redlands outbreak claimed the life of vet Dr Ben Cunneen and five horses.
AVA president Dr Mark Laurie supports the appointment of Dr Perkins.
The Queensland Government wants the review completed by the end of October, but Dr Laurie is confident that is long enough.
"It is a short time frame," he said.
"Sometimes there's important necessity for that to occur so that we can get answers quickly and utilise those in the control and management of future disease outbreaks."
Virus mutation
Dr Perkins says scientists are looking into whether the virus has mutated.
He says although infections of the virus are rare, there is a possibility it is changing with each new outbreak.
"Some viruses when they change become more infectious or more capable of causing severe disease or even death and so there's always a risk that a disease may change in some way over time and this may be an example of that type of change," he said.
He says his latest review will also focus on providing better information to vets and the public.
"It is possible that we will turn up some insights and some observations that reflect the fact that this outbreak appears to be different to previous outbreaks," he said.
"If there's anything that we can learn from this most recent outbreak and use it to prepare better or respond more effectively to an outbreak in the future then we certainly hope we will learn as much as we can."
Dr Perkins says the virus has been examined at the Australian Animal Health laboratory in Victoria.
"That may shed some light on weather there has been changes in the DNA or the structure of the virus," he said.
"But I'm expecting them to have isolated the virus and sequenced it so we'll be looking for those sorts of things in addition to the comments of people who have been directly in contact with these horses."
Dr Perkins is the director of AusVet Animal Health Services and director of the disease surveillance program for the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease.
He has had extensive veterinary epidemiology experience and expertise in disease control.
Drugs research
Meanwhile, researchers are studying new drugs designed to reduce the spread of highly infectious viruses from animals to humans.
Griffith University Professor Mark von Itzstein says the Hendra virus shares similar characteristics to the flu virus and could become more aggressive.
The latest outbreak of Hendra virus caused neurological symptoms which were different from previous outbreaks.
Professor von Itzstein says researchers are hoping to develop ways to stop the virus spreading.
"It's of grave concern if the virus becomes able to acquire the machinery to easily transmit from other animals into humans that it could cause us a major problem."
"That tells us that we should be on the look and certainly interrogating these viruses more."
