Henipavirus Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Hendravirus
Nipahvirus
Henipavirus is a genus of the family Paramyxoviridae, order Mononegavirales containing two members, Hendra virus (originally Equine morbillivirus, EBV) and Nipah virus. The name is actually a combination of the two names. The Henipaviruses are characterised by their large size (18.2 kilobases; Wang et al., 2001), their natural occurrence in fruit bats, and their recent emergence as zoonotic pathogens capable of causing illness and death in domestic animals and humans.
Hendra virus was discovered in 1994 when it caused the deaths of thirteen horses, and a trainer at a training complex in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia. A stable hand also fell ill, but recovered. A second outbreak occurred in Mackay, 1000km north of Brisbane resulting in the death of two horses and their owner (Field et al., 2001). A third incident in Cairns, 1999 resulted in a single dead horse. Symptoms of infection include respiratory illness and encephalitis. The route of transmission from bats to horses and humans is unknown, however, as there is no evidence that Hendra virus is transmitted directly to humans, it is believed that human infection occurs via exposure to an infected intermediate host.
Nipah virus was identified in 1999 when it caused an outbreak of neurological and respiratory disease on pig farms in peninsular Malaysia, resulting in 105 human deaths and the culling of one million pigs (Field et al., 2001). Symptoms of infection are primarily encephalitic in humans and respiratory in pigs. Like Hendra virus, Nipah virus is believed to be transmissible to humans only via an intermediate host.
A second outbreak of Nipah virus in the Faridpur district of Bangladesh, affecting 30 people and resulting in 18 deaths, was confirmed in April 2004. Differences in epidemiology from the Malaysian outbreak, in particular the lack of evidence for an intermediate host, suggest some of the earlier assumptions regarding the mechanism of transmission may be erroneous. Importantly, the Faridpur outbreak may have involved person-to-person transmission, an event not previously observed for either Hendra or Nipah virus.
The confirmation of Nipah virus in Faridpur suggests that previous outbreaks of fatal encephalitis in Bangladesh in 2001, 2003 and January – February 2004, initially ascribed to a new Nipah-like virus, were in fact due to Nipah virus.
Wang, L., Harcourt, B. H., Yu, M., Tamin, A., Rota, P. A., Bellini, W. J., Eaton, B. T. (2001). Molecular biology of Hendra and Nipah viruses. Microbes and Infection 3, 279–287.
This is an Article on Henipavirus. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Henipavirus References
Field, H., Young, P., Yob, J. M., Mills, J., Hall, L., Mackenzie, J. (2001). The natural history of Hendra and Nipah viruses. Microbes and Infection 3, 307–314.External links