Australian veterinarian died from a rare viral disease, infected them with the treatment of an infected foal. This is the fourth recorded case of death caused by the virus since its discovery in 1994, reports ABC News.
55-year-old veterinarian Alistair Rogers (Alister Rodgers) infected with Hendra virus in July in the treatment of patients foal in the kennel in central Queensland. Sept. 1, he died from infection in the Brisbane Princess Alexandra Hospital.
Hendra virus from the family Paramyxoviridae can be transmitted to humans through contact with sick animals. Disease, according to symptoms resembling the flu, accompanied by high fever, headache, drowsiness, life-threatening complications are pneumonia and damage to the central nervous system. No cases of transmission from person to person were recorded. Horses infected with a virus, Hendra leads to the death of the animal for several days. The reservoir of the virus are Australian bats, in which infection is asymptomatic.
According to the administration of Queensland Health, since 1994, Hendra virus infected seven people, four of them died. All cases occurred in the state.
President of the Australian Veterinary Association, Mark Laurie (Mark Lawrie) said that the virus and caused them to infection need careful examination. He also stressed the need for a vaccine to prevent and possibly treat disease in humans and horses.
