Free Republic

QUEENSLAND vet Alister Rodgers lost his battle with the lethal Hendra virus overnight, dying after two weeks in a coma. State Health Minister Paul Lucas today sent his deepest sympathies to Dr Rodgers' widow, Linda, and children Courtney and Duncan. “This is a terrible tragedy for his family and they are being supported by the staff of Princess Alexandra Hospital,” Mr Lucas told Parliament this morning. Dr Rodgers, of the Rockhampton Veterinary Clinic, was infected with the virus when he treated a sick filly - thought at the time to be suffering from snakebite - at the J4S stud in...

Vienna, Austria--Scientists have made a discovery about the basic biology of the Nipah virus, which suggests that cheap, existing drugs for high blood pressure and malaria may help fight the disease. Nipah regularly strikes in rural Bangladesh and neighboring parts of India. The new insights about the deadly pathogen, announced here on 14 February at the International Meeting on Emerging Infectious Diseases and Surveillance, could lead to the first human drug studies within a year, scientists say. Nipah, which belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family and causes encephalitis, was discovered during an outbreak in 1998 and 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore...

Killer virus identified A team from the Prince of Wales Hospital and Chinese University of Hong Kong have identified the virus that has caused the recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome worldwide, confirming that the current anti-viral treatment applied to patients has been the right choice. Identifying the virus as a member of the Paramyxoviridae family, Professor John Tam of the department of microbiology of the Chinese University said it was detected by electron microscopy. The finding, announced late last night, was further confirmed by a molecular technique that revealed the nucleic acid sequence of the virus. Asked if...