The owner of a Brisbane veterinary clinic is anxiously waiting to see if more of his staff have contracted the potentially fatal Hendra virus.
A nurse and a veterinarian at the Redlands Veterinary Clinic were diagnosed with the virus after treating several infected horses. Owner Dr David Lovellsaid if no more staff were diagnosed this weekend, the worst of the crisis should be over.
"If we get through this weekend I get the feeling we will be on the road to recovery," Lovell said.
"The anticipated maximum incubation period is 14 days and certainly by Tuesday there would be absolutely no chance of there being a human or horse being exposed or infected because everything would have been shut down and secured for that time."
Lovell said staff had visited the nurse and veterinarian Ben Cunneen in the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
"They are no way near being cured but it just means they are not deteriorating and that has to be some cause for optimism. But this is not detracting one bit from the seriousness of the condition."
The veterinarian of 38 years has closed his horse practice during the crisis as eight other staff who worked closely with affected horses are monitored to see if they are incubating the bug.
One of the horses was put down, another died and a third is recovering. Lovell said those horses showed signs of neurological damage such as a staggered gait and falling over.
Cunneen and the nurse suffered flu-like symptoms from the virus, which claimed the life of trainer Vic Rail and 14 horses during the last outbreak in 1994.
Brisbane Southside Population Health Unit medical officer Dr Brad McCall said the affected pair would have acquired the infection through close contact with the horses in the late stage of illness or at autopsy. There had been no evidence of person to person transmission of the virus and no risk to the wider community.
Queensland Health continues to monitor seven people in Proserpine, north Queensland, who have undergone blood tests following a second outbreak of the virus. A virus-affected horse died late last week at a Cannonvale property.
