An Australian veterinary clinic that is finally free of the deadly Hendra virus is now facing other troubles — lawsuits from angry horse owners.

Infuriated at being billed by the Redlands Veterinary Clinic for the 52 days their horses were held in quarantine, owners are set to launch a class action against the clinic’s owner to recover thousands of dollars.

The lawsuits follows the worst outbreak of the deadly bat-borne virus since it appeared at Vic Rail’s Hendra stables in 1994.

Along with young veterinarian Ben Cunneen, the virus cuased the deaths of five horses.

Attorney Peter Boyce, who is acting for some of the horse owners, said the action would go ahead once inquiries into the outbreak were finalised.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director, and Nancy Bruening, Executive Editor 

Posted: October 24th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Hendra Virus.
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The altruistic arm of Internet search engine pioneer Google, Inc. this week said it had given grants of more than $14 million to support physicians working in Southeast Asia and Africa to prevent the next pandemic.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.org’s Predict and Prevent initiative is supporting efforts to identify “hot spots” where infectious diseases may emerge, discover new pathogens in animal and human populations, and react to outbreaks before they become global crises.

New lethal infectious diseases crop up every year, Google said, including variants of HIV/AIDS, bird flu and SARS, as well as drug-resistant strains of ancient scourges malaria and tuberculosis.

Google said three-quarters of new diseases are “zoonoses, meaning they’ve jumped from animals to humans.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director, and Nancy Bruening, Executive Editor

Posted: October 21st, 2008 under Avian Flu, Clostridium difficile, Developing Diseases, EV71, Ebola Virus, Flesh-Eating Bacteria, HPV, Hendra Virus, Impaired Immunity, Legionnaires' Disease, MRSA, SARS, West Nile Virus.
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Doctors are testing 50 people in Australia for the potentially deadly Hendra virus, a microorganism spread by bats to horses and then humans, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Queensland Health is taking blood samples from staff at a Brisbane bayside veterinary clinic and from people who came into contact with three horses which tested positive to the virus two weeks ago.One horse was killed and another died, while a third is recovering.

Veterinarian Ben Cunneen and a nurse at the Redlands Veterinary Clinic fell ill with the virus last week after treating the infected creatures.

Doctors say it takes 14 days for the virus to incubate and a negative testing after this period would clear individuals of the potential of contracting the virus.

Horses being held in quarantine at the clinic would be retested on Wednesday.

Clinic owner Dr David Lovell said staff were anxious for the retest and to finally put the matter to rest.

“No one else has been showing clinical signs of the virus,” Dr Lovell said. “So I’m hopeful we’ll all test negative.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, MA, Editorial Director

Bat virus infecting humans down under.

Posted: July 21st, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Hendra Virus.
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