The imperative to develop a human vaccine for the Hendra virus in Australia

Zahoor, Bilal A.; Mudie, Lucy I.

HeV is a Henipavirus that commonly infects Pteropid fruit bats (1, 4, 7) . Because of the novelty of the disease, there is very little information regarding the exact pathogenesis of HeV or its modes of transmission. The currently accepted model describes the excreta of bats Á urine Á containing HeV particles to be the mode of transmission, as is directly taken up by an intermediate host. In both equines and humans, HeV is purported to infect nervous and respiratory epithelial tissues, which can further disseminate, ultimately resulting in death (5, 3) . Apart from an outlier case comprising an infected canine, HeV has only been verifiably detected among fruit bats, equines, and humans. No human-to-human transmission has been documented, as of yet (4, 7) .