Qld: Hendra patient complains of mistreatment

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2009
Qld: Hendra patient complains of mistreatment

By Angela Harper

BRISBANE, Aug 19 AAP - Queensland's chief doctor has offered an olive branch to a patient
claiming those given potentially life-saving experimental treatment to fend off the deadly
Hendra virus were mistreated in hospital.

Two horses died from the virus on August 7 and 8 at the J4S stud at Cawarral, east
of Rockhampton, and a number of handlers were put at risk of infection after exposure
to secretions and blood.

Tests performed on a veterinarian, stud manager Debbie Brown and colleagues Adrian
Daniels and Angela Webber have so far returned negative results for the virus, but final
results won't be known until the end of August.

There have only been six human cases of the virus worldwide - three of whom died -
and little is known about the killer disease.

Bats carry the disease and horses can pass it to humans.

Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young told AAP the situation is terrifying, but none
of Ms Brown's concerns, voiced on ABC Radio on Wednesday morning, could be reviewed unless
Ms Brown complained directly to her.

Ms Brown, one of four patients hospitalised for the five-day treatment at Rockhampton
hospital and released on Tuesday, said the treatment wasn't up to par.

"It (the therapy) was highly experimental, and they didn't know what would happen,
and (health staff said) we would be monitored throughout," Ms Brown told ABC radio.

The entire time Ms Brown said she had to write down her own symptoms, which included
vomiting, diarrhoea and swelling.

Throughout the five days, hospital staff recorded only their temperature, pulse and
blood pressure and failed to make any other observations noticeable to the patients, Ms
Brown said.

"If you're going to send people to be guinea pigs, do what you say you're going to
do - monitor us for Christ's sake," Ms Brown said.

"We thought an expert on Hendra would be there to monitor us."

Upon discharge, all of them felt ill and the veterinarian has since been readmitted.

Dr Young said she offered to talk to Ms Brown at the hospital last Friday, and the
offer remains on the table.

"I'm very happy to speak with her now and we can go through what issues she has and
then I'm very happy to go and look into those," Dr Young said.

"She must be absolutely terrified, this is an awful thing to happen to anyone.

"To not even know if you've got it (the virus), to not know when you know if you've
got it and it's got a shocking prognosis. We've only had six of them - but three of them
have died."

Monitoring at the hospital was meant to focus on the possibility of anaemia and any
other side effects from the treatment, Dr Young told ABC Radio earlier on Tuesday.

"There were medical staff and nursing staff there on the ward, and the four people
were admitted to hospital for the period that they received the drug, so they were monitored,"

Dr Young said.

"We don't know whether or not the treatment is of benefit.

"Ribavirin is a drug commonly used to treat other viruses, but we don't know whether
it will have any impact on Hendra virus."

She praised Ms Brown for taking notes of her side effects during the experimental treatment
and said there would be follow-up blood tests for anaemia.

Final tests for the disease would be done at the end of the month, after the 21-day
incubation period, Dr Young said.

AAP ahe/pjo/ash/mn

KEYWORD: HENDRA WRAP

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