AUSTRALIA is experiencing the biggest outbreak of the highly virulent Hendra virus since the disease was identified in 1994. Worse, a change in the symptoms in horses suggests that new strains may have emerged. The big worry is that a strain capable of spreading from human-to-human will follow.
Hendra virus originated in fruit bats but passed to horses and then people, where it tends to affect the nervous system, causing headaches, convulsions and coma. It can be fatal. As New Scientist went to press, the latest outbreak had infected two people, who remain in hospital, while 50 more are…
